GADAG: The chief minister’s chair is shaky as the government has not done any work in the last one year and disillusioned Congress MLAs have triggered a conflict within the ruling party, said former CM and Haveri-Gadag MP Basavaraj Bommai here on Tuesday.
“While Congress claims everything is fine, internally there is a lot of political backstabbing. When we look at the state’s history, Virendra Patil was one of the strongest chief ministers of Congress, but yet all MLAs were made to switch sides overnight. D Devaraj Urs then replaced him with R Gundu Rao. Urs was reelected CM for the second time by his own strength. S Bangarappa had the support of 183 MLAs, yet even he was replaced as CM. Such politics will continue,” he commented.
Asked if Chief Minister Siddaramaiah would go to jail in the MUDA case, Bommai replied, “As a responsible former chief minister, I will not predict the future. The law will take its course.”
On Congress veteran and MLA RV Deshpande saying he too is in the race for chief minister’s post, Bommai said, “I don’t know the reason behind his statement. There have been several reactions from within Congress. Their responses are evidence that not everything is fine within that party.”
He said that because of better management of finances by the previous BJP government, the present government has managed to sustain itself for the past six months. “But this year will be a challenge as the government has to implement the recommendations of the Seventh Pay Commission. The expenditure will be more. The financial downturn is not far away. As it is, salaries of Anganwadi workers are being delayed by three to four months. It will be difficult to pay the salaries of other government employees too in the near future,” he cautioned. Bommai said state Congress leaders claimed that there was no scam in MUDA, but the government on Monday suspended a former commissioner of the Authority, based on a technical committee report. It seems not everything was done legally, he added.
On the alleged scam in medical procurement during Covid, he said, “Only an interim report is out. Let the full report come out.”
