There seems to be no end in sight for the uneasy relationship between the coalition partners, with top Janata Dal (Secular) leaders on Wednesday taking turns to blame Congress leaders, including former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah obliquely, for the differences coming out in public.
Amidst rants by Congress legislators over the functioning of the coalition government in the past week, both Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, and JD(S) supremo H.D. Deve Gowda accused them of tarnishing the work of the government.
Mr. Gowda went as far as to caution the Congress leadership that it should take action before things get out of hand.
“Do not talk about the coalition lightly. Otherwise things will get out of hand, which we will not tolerate,” he warned.
Both were addressing a party workers’ rally after the national council meet here on Wednesday.
Attacking the coalition partner on a public platform, seven months after the government was formed, they made known their displeasure over Congress legislators making public statements.
Mr. Gowda said: “Congress legislators are daily saying they cannot meet the Chief Minister. Despite challenges to implement loan waiver scheme, funds are being allocated to all schemes started by Mr. Siddaramaiah. How else is the administration to be carried out? How long will this continue?”
He also stated that there were no conditions for the Dharam Singh government (Congress-JDS coalition between 2004-2006) and neither he nor Mr. Kumaraswamy were responsible for the fall of the government.
‘Tarnishing the work’
Without referring to Mr. Siddaramaiah, who is also the chairman of the coordination committee, Mr: Gowda said: “They [Congressmen] are unnecessarily tarnishing the work being done by Mr. Kumaraswamy. You [Mr. Siddaramaiah] were also Chief Minister for five years. I have not uttered a word about the work you did.”
On Mr. Siddaramaiah’s statements in an interview that he would have become Chief Minister earlier if Mr. Gowda had put pressure on the then Congress president Sonia Gandhi, the former Prime Minister said: “Only Ms. Gandhi can answer that.”
With regard to Yeshwantpur MLA S.T. Somashekar’s statement that there has been no development in Bengaluru since the government was formed, Mr. Kumaraswamy said: “I am doing work that had not happened for the past 12 years. How much more should I take it? Leaders from friendly parties [Congress] are bringing pressure on me to get their work done.”
The Chief Minister continued in the same vein saying: “Even today I am hurt. No one has understood me. It is true that I said I will resign. How long should I bear [the pressure]? Power is not permanent and that is why I said I will resign.”
