BENGALURU: Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy today said Congress had insisted that he become Chief Minister, though his father and JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda asked someone from that party take up the top post.
"When Congress leaders said they want to make me Chief Minister, he (Deve Gowda) said his (Kumaraswamy) health is not good, he has twice undergone treatment, let someone from among you become the chief minister," Kumaraswamy said.
The Congress leaders did not agree and pressurised him to become Chief Minister,... "and have given it to me."
Earlier Gowda had also said he had offered to support a Congress-led government in Karnataka after the fractured verdict in the Assembly polls, but the latter insisted on Kumaraswamy becoming the chief minister.
Stating that Sringeri Jagadguru (pontiff) asked him to stop corruption during his recent visit to the mutt, Kumaraswamy said he has been thinking of how to go about it, looking at the situation at Vidhana Soudha (state secretariat). He said he had told the pontiff he could try and stop it at his level and try his best to do it, but it was not easy to bring about a completely corruption free administration.
Noting that corruption starts with transfers, Kumaraswamy said there are middlemen in the corridors of Vidhana Soudha for this purpose, who claim Chief Minister and ministers are with them.
"I'm hearing about all this. Looking at these things I told my father this morning that I'm scared. How to run this government. Where to correct things, whether I will get a bad name from people. He told to take it as a challenge," he added.