BENGALURU: Former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy on Wednesday accused Congress leaders in Karnataka of not accepting the JDS’ suggestion to make senior leader Mallikarjun Kharge the chief minister after the 2018 Assembly elections.
“After the poll results were out, at a meeting attended by state and central leaders of the Congress, Deve Gowda had suggested that Kharge should be made the CM, but it was stopped by Congress leaders. Let them find out who those Congress leaders are,” Kumaraswamy said. He took to social media platforms to hit back at the state Congress unit that accused him of criticising the party that had helped him form the government.
No party had secured a majority in the 2018 polls to form the government and the Congress-JDS coalition government headed by Kumaraswamy was formed after the polls. He said the Congress high command and state leaders had forced him to take up the CM’s post and started putting pressure on him. He said the Congress wanted to use him for their strategy, but he took up the post as he wanted to protect farmers by announcing a loan waiver.