BENGALURU: The political slugfest between Congress and JDS, especially between Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar and former Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy, continued with both sides launching blistering attacks against each other. The verbal onslaught came in the form of strongly worded statements.
Congress went to the extent of accusing former prime minister HD Deve Gowda’s family of trying to raise another mutt parallel to Adi Chunchananagiri Mutt, the religious power centre of the Vokkaliga community, some decades ago.
‘Insulted Swamiji’
“Lord Bhairaveshwara will not forgive you. Are you not a great man who insulted Sri Balagangadharanatha Swamiji of Adi Chunchanagiri Mutt, which is a symbol of self-respect for all, and built another mutt..?!” the Congress alleged. “After you joined the BJP fold, fearing that all your past illegalities will come out, a woman carrying paddy (JDS symbol) has committed suicide by falling into a ‘communal pot’,” the Congress charged.
“Dear Kumaraswamy, by not transferring power to Yediyurappa, who made you CM for the first time, you betrayed him. Yediyurappa said in the Assembly that when the Congress made you CM, ‘Shivakumar, do not trust this father and son, they will make use of you and throw you away.’ But Congress stood with you for ideology,” the Congress said, adding that Kumaraswamy became CM for the second time through the “mercy of the Grand Old Party”.
Reacting strongly, Kumaraswamy alleged Congress harassed JDS when they were alliance partners. “It (KPCC) has accepted the Tihar jailbird (Shivakumar) as its president,” he said. The party has made Siddaramaiah CM despite the fact that he betrayed Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi by removing the Congress-JDS alliance government in the state. “The Congress has also started a vile attempt to provoke Vokkaligas. Behind the dirty statement that the Vokkaligas are uncultured lies the toolkit conspiracy of the Congress,” the JDS alleged.
“Congress buried secularism in the backyard of Nitish Kumar’s house in Bihar by telling a blatant lie that secularism was its own. Now they have started a dangerous game called “caste-caste” and have prepared the toolkit before the elections,” the former CM alleged.