KALABURAGI: There will be no more discussion on a Dalit chief minister in Karnataka, and the issue will be looked into after the 2028 Assembly elections, said PWD Minister Satish Jarkiholi here on Sunday.
Reacting to BJP leaders’ criticism that the Congress government is not implementing the five guarantees properly, he said the opposition parties are making the allegation for the last two years and will continue with it for another three years. People are happy with the guarantees and the government is also implementing several development works, he justified.
Jarkiholi asked people to look at the budget presented and implemented by the previous Basavaraj Bommai government and the one by the Siddaramaiah government.
He said Karnataka is giving Rs 2 lakh crore as GST to the Union government, but in return getting only Rs 37,000 crore. “The Centre is utilising our share of GST to build the Ganga-Yamuna Highway which would benefit UP and Bihar,” he alleged.
On BJP MLC AH Vishwanath’s statement that the chief minister would be changed in September, Jarkiholi declined to comment.
But Social Welfare Minister HC Mahadevappa said that as per his knowledge, the Congress High Command is not proposing to replace Siddaramaiah.
In a tongue-in-cheek commented, Mahadevappa said he is not aware of the Congress high command informing Vishwanath about the change in leadership. “Siddaramaiah is the chief minister and will continue to be the CM,” he added.
On BJP president BY Vijayendra’s allegations that the CM and Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar were responsible for the stampede at Chinnaswamy Stadium that claimed 11 lives on June 4, he termed the accusation “childish”. “The incident is deeply painful and should not have happened. Judicial and magisterial inquiries have been ordered, and we must wait for their findings to know who is responsible,” he said.
“Similar incidents have occurred in Uttar Pradesh and also a plane crashed in Ahmedabad. Did anyone demand Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s resignation over those incidents? Politics should not be involved in such tragedies,” he added.