Former chief minister Siddaramaiah has, on several occasions previously, stated that he would not want to contest in any future elections. But, from his recent speech during the inaugural function of a temple at Holenarasipura town on August 24, it can be gleaned that the former chief minister is having second thoughts about this stance.

During his speech at the function, Siddaramaiah expressed that he wanted to be chief minister of the state for one more term and added that he has confidence that the people would support him and bring him to power once more.

Commenting on the Assembly elections that were held a few months ago, Siddaramaiah said that he was sure that he would be chief minister once again and that when he was chief minister, he had instituted several schemes to help people of all classes but, the people did not support him. “Elections now are being fought on the basis of caste and money. This is dangerous in a democracy,” he stated.

He then criticised the Central government for not providing relief funds to the district of Kodagu that until recently, had been battling heavy rains and horrific landslides. He also took a dig at the Prime Minister for not personally visiting the district and taking stock of the situation.

Responding to Siddaramaiah’s wish to become chief minister again, CM HD Kumaraswamy said that he would be delighted if Siddaramaiah’s wish were to come true. State minister for water resources DK Shivakumar, however, said that Siddaramaiah’s statement was probably made to encourage the party workers and that this was not the way the former chief minister usually speaks. “The interests of the party come first. All of us have our own aspirations but, we will stick to our promise that Kumaraswamy will remain the chief minister for the entire five-year term,” he explained.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi said on Friday that the Narendra Modi government lacks a “coherent strategy” towards Pakistan and attacked Modi for his foreign policy based on “hugs”.

Speaking at an event at the International Institute of Strategic Studies (IISS) of London, Gandhi said that Pakistan promotes terrorism in India and it is not possible to talk in such a situation.

“The Modi government lack a coherent strategy towards Pakistan, it’s episodic. The Prime Minister flies there for a wedding. There’s no deeply thought out strategy,” he said.

Taking a dig at the Prime Minister, Gandhi said: “I’ve also been trapped in the hug politics but I don’t think you can run foreign policy based on hugs. It doesn’t work. We have tremendous structures in our country, institutional structures that understand these things, one has to use those structures to develop strategy.”

“The question with Pakistan is who do you talk to in Pakistan. Pakistan, from our perspective, has a number of institutions. So the difficulty from an Indian perspective is which institution do you talk to?” Gandhi said.

The Congress leader said some of the institutions in Pakistan are hostile towards India and some are attacking India. “So we don’t want to talk to them.”

He said: “You wait till the time Pakistan is able to resolve some of these issues, you wait till the time Pakistan is able to have a coherent structure you can talk to, but it’s very difficult to sign something if you don’t know what’s going to happen the next day.”

“It’s a huge commitment of political will…and if you sign something and the next dayelike that happened for example with Mr. Vajpayee and that is a classic example,” he added.

On India’s relationship with South Asian countries, Gandhi said: “What is important is that you develop a strategy based on your foundational strengths.”

“I don’t see a coherent strategy based on India’s strength, I see tactical responses, I see knee-jerk reactions but I don’t see a strategic vision that says this is how India is going to chart its course through 21st century,” he added.

He also attacked the Prime Minister for what he temed “centralisation of power” and said: “What is being going on in the last four years is a massive centralisation of power, in the CM on one hand and the PM on the other.”

Karnataka on Friday sought Rs 2,000 crore interim relief from the central government for relief and rehabilitation of flood victims in the southern state’s Kodagu district.

“I appeal to you to release an interim relief of Rs 2,000 crore to enable the state government rehabilitate Kodagu’s flood-hit victims,” said state Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy in a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday.

The Chief Minister’s office released the letter to the media on Friday night.

As per initial estimates, the huge loss caused by heavy rains, floods and landslides to the infrastructure, public property and crops is feared to be Rs 3,000 crore.

The letter also highlighted the large-scale destruction the natural calamity caused to crops, coffee plantations, spices and arecanut (beetle nuts) across the hilly district, about 270 km southwest of Bengaluru.

Thanking Modi for enquiring about the situation in Kodagu on August 19 and providing help in the rescue operations through the Indian Army, Navy and air force, the chief minister said the landslides changed the geomorphology and river course in the region.

“As the arterial roads connecting Kodagu have been battered, relief operations and the movement of essentials like food, drinking water and medicines were hampered,” recalled Kumaraswamy.

The torrential rains, landslips and floods during the southwest monsoon from August 14-22, claimed 17 lives and damaged over 2,200 houses.

“Undeterred by the devastation, the state machinery and the district administration rescued over 4,500 people and provided shelter to 7,500 people in 53 relief camps, served 50,000 food packets and supplied rice, oil, pulses, salt and sugar,” added the letter.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday said people are unhappy with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which will cause it to suffer major losses in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) head also said the common man is angry with the BJP for “creating hurdles” in the works of the Delhi government under him.

“The public is not very happy with the BJP MPs. They are all the more angry with the party as it has created hurdles in the works of the Delhi government. The BJP will suffer major losses in 2019,” Kejriwal tweeted in Hindi.