Former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Sunday questioned the political strength of JD(S) in Mandya district by recalling the party’s loss in the last Lok Sabha elections.
Speaking to reporters in Mandya, Mr. Siddaramaiah claimed that the JD(S) had become politically weak in Mandya, which is considered to be one of the party’s strongholds. “If they were strong in Mandya, why did they lose in the last elections to the Lok Sabha?” the Congress leader questioned.
It may be mentioned here that Nikhil Kumaraswamy, son of former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy, who was the party’s candidate in the elections to Lok Sabha from Mandya, lost to Independent candidate Sumalatha Ambarish.
Mr. Siddaramaiah made it a point to also mention that the Congress had not fielded its candidate in Mandya during the polls in 2019. The Congress had ceded to the seat to JD(S) as part of the seat-sharing arrangement.
‘Stopped speaking’
When his attention was drawn to Mr. Kumaraswamy’s claim that Mr. Siddaramaiah cannot sleep peacefully without criticising the JD(S), the Congress leader said he had stopped speaking about JD(S), Mr. Kumaraswamy, and their party supremo H.D. Deve Gowda. He claimed that his pro-people comments are twisted by the JD(S) leaders to lend it a “communal colour”. “So, I have stopped speaking about them…Yet, Mr. Kumaraswamy continues to provoke. What else can I do, but respond,” he said.
With regard to his criticism of the RSS, Mr. Siddaramaiah said he had always opposed RSS, which is a “communal” organisation that promotes “Manu Samskruti”.
