Siddaramaiah denies rebels' claim that he engineered resignations

BENGALURU: Lashing out at rebel MLAs who allegedly claimed he was behind their resignations which led to the fall of the JD(S)-Congress coalition government, Congress Legislature Party leader Siddaramaiah on Thursday said that it was an old tactic of shifting the blame.
Murmurs that former chief minister Siddaramaiah engineered the collapse of the coalition have been doing the rounds and it came out in the open when Shivaram Hebbar, one of the rebels, on Thursday reportedly claimed the former CM told them to resign.

In a series of tweets, Siddaramaiah dared the rebels to repeat the allegations “in front of him”, promising a befitting reply if they did.
“Media houses are reporting that few rebel MLAs claimed that I instigated them to resign and destabilise our government. This is nothing but a false allegation with mala fide intentions,” he tweeted.
Siddaramaiah claimed the rebels were simply trying to cover up for their “mistake” by blaming him. This after the MLAs faced widespread public backlash for “betraying and backstabbing” both the electorate and the party.
“Everything will be clear when the dust settles but by then they (rebels) would have bitten the dust,” he said.
Stating that he faced numerous, baseless allegations even when he was CM, Siddaramaiah said only time would answer to these charges. “This is not the first time and will not be the last but I have digested this venom to serve people with good intent,” he added.