BENGALURU: Deputy CM DK Shivakumar on Wednesday revealed that he preferred to go to jail instead of taking up the deputy chief minister’s post offered by the central BJP to destabilise the JDS-Congress coalition government in the previous term.
At the launch of a book on him -- DK Shivakumar, A Symbol of Loyalty and Troubleshooter by KM Raghu, he said he even joined hands with his political opponents HD Deve Gowda and HD Kumaraswamy in 2018 to safeguard secularism and democracy.
“I fought against them, there were cases against me. But I kept all that aside and joined hands with Kumaraswamy. I managed to get five lawmakers to the Minister’s Quarters. I then received a call from an ED official. A DG rank officer from Karnataka too was there. I was threatened by a central BJP leader, who gave me the choice of either the deputy chief minister’s post or jail. I told him I preferred jail,” Shivakumar said.
The DCM said he had not met the author of the book, till they came with an invite for the launch. Shivakumar said he never gave any permission for the book, still the writer managed to source old speeches, contacted his close circle and put out information which is 90% accurate. He said he is not a fan of books and does not read them because of his political engagements.
Shivakumar said he wants to leave a legacy behind him and said he believes in ‘God’s opportunity’, hinting at his aspirations for the chief minister’s post. “God will only give us the opportunity, we have to make use of it. I cannot always win, and I have to accept it,” he said.
Before concluding his speech, he recited a Sanskrit shloka and said, he is more satisfied with his degree in political science when he was 47 years old, than anything else. “I am 63 and may be I will be active for another 10 years. I want to create more leaders,” he said.
