Siddaramaiah poaching JDS leaders: Kumaraswamy

BENGALURU: JDS leader HD Kumaraswamy on Thursday indirectly accused former chief minister Siddaramaiah of “disturbing” his party leaders and trying to “hijack” them. 

“A former chief minister of Karnataka called up one of our MLAs as many as 12 times to convince him to quit the JDS. This shows how desperate he is, and is dreaming of finishing off our party, which will not happen,” he alleged. The leaders include MLAs and also runners-up in the 2018 assembly polls, he claimed.

He was speaking to reporters after nine days of Janata Parva 1.0 and Janata Sangama for the party rank and file. While he did not name Siddaramaiah, Kumaraswamy clarified that he will no longer try to convince leaders like Chamundeshwari MLA G T Devegowda to remain in the party. “I know who will be with us and who will quit,” he said. 

The JDS had lost 30-40 seats by a narrow margin since the 2004 elections, and will try to capture these seats in 2023, he said. “I will announce the list of candidates early, maybe in January 2022, so that the new faces get ample time to prepare the ground,” he said.