Former Karnataka Chief Minister and Congress leader Siddaramaiah on July 4 ridiculed former JD(S) State unit president A.H. Vishwanath for his utterances against the Congress-JD(S) coalition government in the State.
When reporters drew Mr. Siddaramaiah’s attention to Mr. Vishwanath’s remarks in New Delhi, the former Chief Minister questioned Mr. Vishwanath’s competence to comment against others when he himself was unable to discharge the duties as the party’s State chief and had resigned.
“He was unable to discharge the duties of the president of (JD-S State unit) party, how can he talk about others?”, Mr. Siddaramaiah said.
Mr. Vishwanath had said that Mr. Siddaramaiah, as the coordination panel head, and Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy failed to make the coalition experiment a success in Karnataka and alleged that there was no coordination in running the government.
Reacting to Minister for Higher Education G.T. Deve Gowda’s continued defence of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah following the recent resignations of two Congress MLAs Anand Singh and Ramesh Jharkiholi, Mr. Siddaramaiah said: “Let him [G.T. Deve Gowda] be committed to whatever he has said. I have not spoken to Mr. Modi or Mr Amit Shah. He may have spoken. I don’t know about it.” He reiterated that Mr. Modi and Mr. Shah were responsible for the defections in Karnataka.
“They [Mr. Modi and Mr. Shah] are the ones who are trying to install a BJP government in Karnataka through the back door. They are the ones who are trying to lure our MLAs,” the former Chief Minister said.
He said he was not aware about Periyapatna JD (S) MLA K. Mahadev’s charge that Mr. Jharkiholi had demanded ₹80 crore from the Chief Minister to remain in the coalition.
Mr. Siddaramaiah reiterated that there was no trouble for the coalition Government. “It will be strong like a rock”, he said.