BENGALURU: While Siddaramaiah’s name is at the forefront for the CM’s post, former minister Dr
K Sudhakar and ST Somashekhar — who quit Congress to join the BJP in 2019, and went on to become ministers — have accused him of ‘encouraging’ 13 MLAs to join the BJP. However, MTB Nagaraj, who was among the 13 MLAs, has defended Siddaramaiah.
Sudhakar, who was health minister in the BJP government and lost the recent polls, alleged that Siddaramaiah, who was chairman of the Coordination Committee in the Congress-JDS coalition government, used to express helplessness, but claimed he wouldn’t allow the HD Kumaraswamy government to continue after the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.
Taking to a micro-blogging site, Sudhakar stated, “During the coalition government in 2018, whenever MLAs went to Siddaramaiah with their concerns, he would be helpless, and say he had no say in the government and that work has been stalled in his constituency too. He would assure the MLAs that they would have to wait till the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, and come what may, wouldn’t allow the Kumaraswamy government to continue even for a single day after the polls.”
“Ultimately, some of us had to quit the Congress and go back to the people in the bypolls to protect party workers and supporters in our constituencies,” he said, and challenged Siddaramaiah to deny the fact that he had no role, implicitly or explicitly, in this move by Congress MLAs.
Joining him, Yeshwantpur MLA ST Somashekhar, who also jumped ship, alleged, “Despite being chairman of the Coordination Committee, Siddaramaiah always expressed helplessness in addressing the concerns of MLAs. No one can deny the truth that this pushed some of us to quit the party and go for bypolls.”
However, MTB Nagaraj, while claiming that it is true that Siddaramaiah had asked them to wait till parliament elections, said Sudhakar’s allegations are baseless. “Disappointed after losing the elections, Sudhakar is making baseless comments. Why did he keep quiet all these days? What is the reason behind his silence all these days, and for bringing it before the public now? Is he (Sudhakar) ready to swear by his family deity that Siddaramaiah encouraged him to join BJP?” he challenged.