HDD’s allegation against me are baseless: Siddu

Team Udayavani, Aug 23, 2019, 11:46 AM IST

Bengaluru: Senior Congress leader and former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Friday rubbished Deve Gowda’s claims that he had instigated the rebels to resign and destabilise the coalition government headed by H D Kumaraswamy.

Addressing the press conference here, Siddramaih retorted against the allegation made against him by Deve Gowda and rejected any role in bringing down coalition govt.

Former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda has seriously accused me and if  I remain silent, it will give the impression that I am wrong, Siddaramiah said in his presser.

“I am accused of  bringing down the coalition government as I could not tolerate Kumaraswamy being the Chief Minister. When the BJP government headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi was abusing the country’s autonomous elected institutions, we all agreed to form a government with an understanding to fight together and keep BJP out of power in the state. I was fully cooperative for 14 months and supported Kumaraswamy as the CM.”

“But all the allegations of Deve Gowda against me are far from the truth.  I have always agreed with our high command decision. I have never interfered with HDK’s work. Revanna and Kumaraswamy have all blamed me and the Congress party for the fall of the Congress and JDS coalition government but we are not responsible for this,” he said.

“HDK’s lack of trust in his ministers led to the fall of the government. We had made all kinds of efforts to stabilize the government. I am not after power and in for cheap politics. It’s HDK’s way of working and style of functioning that led to governments downfall. His unilateral functioning and not taking ministers into confidence was the cause,” he added.

We have had five coordinating committee meetings. But it has not been implemented by Kumaraswamy. It was their fault that the coordination committee did not implement the decision. If you look at the history it is Kumarasamay who ditched Dharam Singh’s government. It is a habit Deve Gowda to betray people who offer support. Deve Gowda only wants his family members to prosper in politics, said Siddaramaih.