A day after the fractured mandate in the Legislative Assembly elections, outgoing Speaker K.B. Koliwad came down heavily on the outgoing Chief Minister Siddaramaiah for the party’s poor show.
He claimed that the party had lost out owing to the “dictatorial” attitude of the Chief Minister. Mr. Koliwad lost to R. Shankar of Karnataka Pragnyavantha Janatha Party (KPJP) by a margin of 4,338 votes in Ranebennur constituency.
“In the interest of the party, the Chief Minister should be kept away from the Congress,” Mr. Koliwad said. “His attitude and language went against the Congress,” he added.
Mr. Koliwad claimed that Mr. Siddaramaiah had tried to deny him ticket to contest elections. However, he had managed to get it after he directly spoke to Congress president Rahul Gandhi, he said, blaming Mr. Siddaramaiah for his defeat by claiming that he had supported Mr. Shankar of the KPJP in the elections.
Interestingly, the newly elected member Mr. Shankar, who belongs to the Kuruba community, first extended his support to the BJP and now moved to support the Congress. Mr. Siddaramaiah tried to defeat him in the last (2013) elections but he did not succeed, said Mr. Koliwad, a five-time MLA.
He said the Siddaramaiah government had taken “unnecessary decisions” such as granting minority religious tag to Lingayat/Veerahsiava community, which was one of the factors for the party’s dismal show.
Sources said that a few leaders had expressed resentment against Mr. Siddaramaiah for the defeat of the party at the Congress Legislature Party, which was held here on Wednesday.
