BENGALURU: Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy on Friday defended his decision to join hands with Congress to keep BJP, the single largest party, out of power. He termed it as atonement for his “sin committed in 2006 by joining hands with BJP to form the government.”Kumaraswamy hit out at BJP and former Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa for accusing him of “striking an unholy alliance to hijack the people’s mandate”. “I have been suffering from the guilt of joining hands with BJP to form government earlier that had pained my father H D Deve Gowda,” he said in his addressing in the Assembly after moving the Confidence Motion.
“I have erased the blot I had caused on the secular credentials of my father by joining hands with Congress today. I have happy that I have discharged my duty as his son by restoring his secular credentials,”
he said.Kumaraswamy said he did not join hands with Congress to become Chief Minister, but for the future of his party and want to set right the wrongs when he was the chief minister leading JDS-BJP government.
Kumaraswamy said he fails to understand the BJP’s claim that the mandate is theirs after the people gave a fractured mandate just as they did in 2004.“The 2018 Assembly polls has resulted in unique political developments in the State. The people have not given me a complete mandate. The Opposition feels the mandate is theirs, but I am yet to understand how they believe it to be so,” he said.
Thanking senior Congress leaders including G Parameshwara and Ghulam Nabi Azad, Kumaraswamy said he was not after the Chief Minister’s post.He also said he had borne the accusations of not keeping his word patiently, when he did not hand over power to Yeddyurappa in 2007.
“There were rumours that pained me a great deal when I was the Chief Minister. When I did not hand over power, I earned a lot of ill will. I had an agreement with Yeddyurappa and Eshwarappa and not the BJP’s leadership. I have borne the brunt of being labelled as someone who does not keep his word for the past 10 years,” he said.
He expressed the confidence of coalition government lasting its full term of 5 years and assured that he would fulfill the promises of both JD(S) and Congress.