The ongoing tussle between Congress leaders D. K. Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah for the post of Chief Minister in Karnataka has come out in the open, and also crossed party lines. BJP leaders Dr. K. Sudhakar and S. T. Somashekhar, who were once considered close aides of Mr. Siddaramaiah, blamed the former Chief Minister for them quitting the Congress, which led to collapse of the then Congress-JD(S) coalition government led by H. D. Kumaraswamy.
After joining the BJP, both the leaders were made Ministers.
In separate tweets, the leaders suggested that Mr. Siddaramaiah’s stand against the the Congress-JD(S) coalition government pushed them to quit the Congress.
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Both the BJP leaders and former Ministers are Vokkaligas, the same community to which Mr. Shivakumar belongs.
Their claims came before a crucial meeting in Delhi to decide the next Chief Minister of Karnataka.
In July 2019, 17 MLAs from both the Congress and JD(S) quit their parties and resigned as MLAs. Later, they contested the by-elections as candidates of the BJP.
Mr. Sudhakar, who lost the Assembly elections in 2023, tweeted: “During the JD(S)-Congress coalition government in 2018, whenever MLAs went to the then Coordination Committee Chairman Siddaramaiah with their concerns, he used to express his helplessness and say that he has no say in the government and his constituency/district works itself are stalled.”
He went on to claim: “Further, Siddaramaiah used to assure MLAs to wait till 2019 Lok Sabha polls and come what may he won’t allow H. D. Kumaraswamy-led coalition government to continue even for a single day after Lok Sabha polls. Ultimately some of us had to inevitably quit Congress and go back to the people in by-polls, to protect the karyakartas and supporters in our constituencies.”
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Dr. Sudhakar remarked, “Can Siddaramaiah deny the fact that he had a role, implicitly or explicitly, in this move by Congress MLAs?”
In a similar move, former Co-operation Minister S. T. Somashekhar tweeted: “Despite being chairman of co-ordination committee, Siddaramaiah always expressed his helplessness to address the concerns of MLAs during the Congress-JD(S) coalition government. No one can deny the truth that this pushed some of us to quit the party and go for by-polls.“
Somashekhar was re-elected as MLA from Yeshwantpura constituency in Bengaluru.
