‘I will not sacrifice self-respect for power’

BJP took to resort politics and lost elections; nobody in our party will go to Goa to destabilise govt.: Siddaramaiah

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in his reply to the Legislative Assembly and Council on the last day of the legislature session in Bangalore on Thursday. Photo: V Sreenivasa Murthy

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah told the Legislative Assembly on Thursday that he would not continue in politics or remain in the Chief Minister’s post “by hurting my self-respect”.

Reacting to the Opposition parties’ charge that he has been continuing in office by putting political interests above self-respect for the sake of power, Mr. Siddaramaiah said: “I have been in politics for the last 30 years. I became an MLA in 1983 when Ramakrishna Hegde was the Chief Minister. I have never compromised on my self-respect. I will not sacrifice my self-respect for the sake of power.”

‘No point’

The Chief Minister said he had resigned several times when his self-respect was at stake. He had worked under five Chief Ministers, he said, adding that there was no point in continuing in politics by giving up self-respect.

Clean chit

The Chief Minister gave a clean chit to Minister for Energy D.K. Shivakumar and Minister for Information R. Roshan Baig saying that in a land denotification case, a charge sheet has been filed against Mr. Shivakumar, but the Minister has obtained a stay order. Similarly, based on a private complaint against Mr. Baig, the police had filed an FIR. But no charge-sheet has been filed, Mr. Siddaramaiah saidSantosh Lad quit the Ministry on his own, he claimed.

‘Government stable’

Mr. Siddaramaiah exuded confidence about winning the Lok Sabha elections, saying it would not alter the composition in the Assembly and he would continue as Chief Minister till the end of his term. “Unlike the BJP, all members of the party are united and extend their support to me.” He said the BJP took to “resort politics” and lost the Assembly elections. “Nobody in our party will go to Goa or Hyderabad to destabilise the government.”

Budget on Feb.14

Mr. Siddaramaiah lauded senior member Basavaraj Rayaraddi for his address on the motion of thanks to the Governor and said steps would be taken to eliminate corruption from the system.

Keeping into account poll code of conduct, the State Budget for 2014-15 will be tabled in the House on February 14, the Chief Minister said.