Former Chief Minister and JD(S) State president H.D. Kumaraswamy on Monday denied any ‘secret pact’ with the BJP as accused by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and said both the Congress and the BJP were his rivals.
Responding to the Chief Minister’s charges that the JD(S) and BJP colluded against him in Chamundeshwari and other constituencies, Mr. Kumarawamy told reporters here that Mr. Siddaramaiah was afraid of him and therefore making unfounded accusations against him.
On the CM’s statement that the JD(S) may not win more than 25 seats in the elections, he said, “Siddaramaiah may have had a dream of his party winning 25 seats in the polls but says the next morning that JD(S) will be winning 25 seats.”
To a question on whether he will negotiate with his rivals – something he had done with the BJP in 2006 for power – Mr. Kumaraswamy said those days had gone by and he didn’t think such situations would recur.
He maintained that it was the JD(S) that had an upper hand in Badami and not the CM who was contesting from the seat besides Chamundeshwari. “Our candidate has worked really hard for over a year. JD(S) will put up a tough fight to the CM,” he said.
On changing the JD(S) candidate from Varuna, Abhishekh, he said the change of candidate was part of the party’s strategy since a candidate belonging to Lingayat community has already been fielded by the BJP. While denying any ‘hidden agenda’ behind the change of candidate in Varuna, Mr. Kumaraswamy said the party candidate, also a Lingayat, himself expressed rethinking his candidature to match the segment’s caste equation.
The former CM predicted that all seven former JD(S) MLAs who quit the party and joined the Congress recently such as N. Cheluvarayaswamy and Zameer Ahmed, will bite the dust in the elections. He maintained that the JD(S) would capture those seats.
“I don’t want to react to uncivilised statements from these people,” he said, when his reaction was sought to Mr. Zameer Ahmed’s outbursts against him.
