Bommai, HDK taunt DKS on latter's CM ambition

MYSURU: A day after Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president DK Shivakumar set the cat among the pigeons by publicly expressing his desire to be the chief minister if the Congress bags majority in the upcoming Assembly polls, the BJP and JDS leaders wasted no time in ridiculing him.

While senior JDS leader and former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy stressed that Opposition leader Siddaramaiah will not allow Shivakumar’s “dream to come true”,

Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai taunted that DKS has become restless to become the CM. “He is daydreaming of becoming the CM. As per my observation, the Congress has not allowed him to work properly even as KPCC president. In such a situation, how can he dream of becoming CM. Opposition leader Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar cannot get along with each other,” he told reporters on Wednesday.

Slamming Shivakumar for his “remote-controlled CM” remark, Bommai said let the KPCC chief check what has fallen on his plate before commenting on others.When asked about the pending GST compensation amount, which is yet to be released by the Central government, Bommai said during the pandemic for two years, there was no tax collection from the state.

“Though there was no tax collection for two years, the Centre has provided the GST compensation grants to the state. Recently, we received Rs 8,800 crore and we will receive the pending amount too in the coming days,” he said.

However, the chief minister said the Central government turned down the state’s request to extend the GST compensation cess regime for another two years citing legal hurdles. District Minister S T Somashekar and MLA L Nagendra accompanied the CM.