Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Coal and Mines Pralhad Joshi has said that there was no guarantee that the Congress government in Karnataka would survive after the Lok Sabha elections.
Speaking to presspersons in Hubballi on Saturday, Mr. Joshi said that there were reports that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah would have to resign if Congress failed to win 20 seats in Karnataka. “Congress will not win more than five seats in the State and Mr. Siddaramaiah’s resignation is guaranteed,” he said.
The Union Minister said that the CM and Deputy Chief Minister were trying hard to outwit each other and it had continued even now. Ever since he came to power, Mr. Siddaramaiah was trying to snub Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar and reports about creating more posts of Dy.CM was part of the same gameplan, he said.
Regarding BJP leader Preetam Gowda’s remarks on the BJP-JD(S) alliance in Hassan, Mr. Joshi said that he would ask Mr. Gowda not to make any public statement on the issue of alliance and that it would be sorted by JD(S) supremo H.D. Deve Gowda and BJP’s national leaders.
Regarding the BJP candidate for Belagavi Lok Sabha election, he said that the former CM Jagadish Shettar was the frontrunner for the party ticket and minor differences were natural during elections. These would be resolved by the party high command, he said, adding that former Deputy Chief Minister K.S. Eshwarappa would also be with BJP and there was still lot of time left.
