BELAGAVI: Former Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said he would never like to have mid-term elections in the state but is apparently ready to face the election if the BJP government collapses on its own.
Hitting out at BJP at a press conference in Khanapur, near Belagavi on Tuesday, Siddaramaiah said, all ministers in the Cabinet of former CM B S Yediyurappa were corrupt. "The BJP government in the state is illegitimate as it came to power via Operation Lotus by getting the support of 17 MLAs defected from other parties. Former Women and Child Development Minister Shashikala Jolle should have resigned after she was found indulging in corruption as exposed in a sting operation by a news channel. Yediyurappa did not ask her to resign as all the ministers in his cabinet were corrupt,'' said Siddaramaiah.
To a question, Siddaramaiah said, for being a national party, the Congress had a high command at the national level and other party cadres at the state, district and taluk level. He said, the BJP did not have any such thing and that there was no democracy existing in BJP at all. But in the JDS, there was only one command, he added.
"The CM is elected and expelled by the BJP central leadership. The leaders never had any role to play in the BJP. Do you call it a democratic act. The BJP never came to power with full majority in the state. In 2008, 2013 and 2018, the BJP had its government but without a majority,'' he added.
While asserting the Congress party would come to power 100 per cent after the 2023 election in the state, he said, whether or not Yediyurappa was there as the leader of BJP in the state, it would not make any difference to the Congress party. "The people of the state are fed up of the BJP government as it is almost like non-functional and totally corrupt,'' he added.
Earlier, several supporters of CM Siddaramaiah raised 'next CM Siddaramaiah'' slogans in Belagavi when he was set to leave for the review of flood-hit areas of Belagavi district on Tuesday. Siddaramaiah sat in his car and left without responding to his supporters. He visited several flood hit areas of Khanapur and Belagavi taluk today and took stock of the situation.
After his review of the flood situation, he slammed the Centre for not helping the state come out of the flood crisis. The Prime Minister who visited several other states during the crisis did not bother to visit Karnataka in 2019 when the state suffered a disastrous flood situation nor did he release the required funds to the state to tackle the crisis, said Siddaramaiah adding that the Congress formed several teams of leaders which would visit various flood-hit areas of the state to take stock of the situation.
Siddaramaiah demanded the construction of a wall to check the flooding of Malaprabha river in Khanapur, where the floods caused massive damage every monsoon. He appealed to the government to release at least Rs 13 crore to raise the check wall.
During his visit to the flood-hit Khanapur today, Siddaramaiah also urged the government to acquire the land encroached by people on the banks of Malaprabha river in and around Khanapur.