MYSURU: Opposition leader Siddaramaiah mocked the demand to make Hunsur a separate district by former MLA A H Vishwanath. Addressing a meeting of Kuruba community members from Hunsur on Sunday, Siddaramaiah, who dismissed the idea for being nothing but politically-motivated, questioned why Vishwanath, who has been politically active since when D Devaraja Urs was CM, did not raise the demand then. Denying that he had been “troubling” Vishwanath when he was in the Congress, which compelled him to quit the party, Siddaramaiah explained why there was discontentment between them. “When I was CM, Vishwanath had written a letter to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, accusing me of indulging in corruption. I had questioned Vishwanath over this,” he said.
Referring to claims that Vishwanath played a key role in making him CM, Siddaramaiah said, “It’s the people who made me CM. Vishwanath was not even an MLA at the time. H P Manjunath, then-Hunsur MLA, had supported me,” he added.