In a tit-for-tat battle of political one-upmanship, the JD(S) leader and Union Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy played out video clips containing statements of Congress leaders made in the past under different circumstances but bound to embarrass them in the present.
This is consequent to Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar who played video clips during the Janandolana rallies of the Congress when the current alliance partners, the BJP and JD(S), were bitter rivals and used to hit out at each other.
One clip included a viral video of Mr.Siddaramaiah who had made a gaffe and called for “overthrowing the Congress” after dubbing them “steeped in corruption”. Though Mr. Siddaramaiah had corrected himself in the original video and said he meant the BJP, that portion was edited. Another clip pertained to two Congress leaders, just before a press conference, talking in hushed tones and accusing Mr. Shivakumar of corruption, but the conversations got recorded as the mikes were on.
After the video clips were played Mr. Kumarawamy took potshots at Mr.Shivakumar who had described himself as a “boulder” standing shoulder to shoulder with Mr. Siddaramiah. “In 2018 as the Chief Minister I reposed faith in the same “boulder” but it harmed me resulting in my downfall and Siddaramaiah’s fate will be no different,” remarked Mr. Kumaraswamy.
Mr.Kumaraswamy also singled out Mr. Shivakumar “for attacking the Deve Gowda family” and said that he had accepted the challenge in a statement seen as an escalation of the rivalry between the two leaders.
