BANGALOREHUBBALI: With every passing day, the cult of former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah grows. Just one day after Home Minister MB Patil and others said that Siddaramaiah must become the Chief Minister again, his cabinet colleague PT Parameshwar Naik on Wednesday parroted the same lines, prompting Siddaramaiah himself to try and put a stop to the movement.
On Tuesday, along with Patil, DK Shivakumar and Satish Jarkiholi had also given strong statements in favour of Siddaramaiah. Congress MLA Dr K Sudhakar had also said something on the same lines.
Taking to Twitter in an attempt to douse the fire, Siddaramaiah tweeted, “Our (Congress) legislators out of respect are saying that I should be CM again. But the post of CM is not vacant and it is not reasonable to raise the question about who should be the next Chief Minister.” He also said the same to a group of journalists in Hubbali earlier on Wednesday.
“Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy is delivering what people were promised, so the issue of change of guard in the government will not arise,’’ he clarified before taking a potshot at the BJP by saying, “ The BJP tenure of five years saw three Chief Ministers and six ministers, including the Chief Minister, went to jail. Why would people vote for BJP candidates.’’ Responding to JDS leader Basavaraj Horatti’s comments on the dropping of Ramesh Jarkiholi from the cabinet, Siddaramaiah cautioned Horatti asking him to mind his own party’s business and keep away from the affairs of the Congress party.
However, the damage seems to have been done as the open show of support seems to have earned the ire of the JDS. On Wednesday evening, Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara and KPCC president Dinesh Gundu Rao met Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy for discussions on the upcoming ULB polls.