Bengaluru: Congress Legislature Party leader and former CM Siddaramaiah on Friday blamed the Devegowda family for the collapse of Cong-JD(S) coalition government in the state earlier last month after a series of resignations from the MLAs of both the parties.
Siddaramaiah on Friday called a press conference in the city to respond to the allegations levelled against him by JD(S) supremo and former PM Devegowda blaming him for the collapse of the government.
“In an interview to a news agency Devegowda levelled allegations against me that I was the reason behind the collapse of coalition government. If I don’t respond to the allegations it will send wrong message across. That’s why I decided to call a press conference on this” Siddaramaiah said ahead of the press conference.
“Our aim was that the BJP should not come to power. Even after having over 80 MLAs we supported JD(S). And once the government was formed I never interfered in the administration of Kumaraswamy nor any such attempts were made. Now, when the government has collapsed they are blaming me to cover up their mistakes that led to the collapse of the government” Siddaramaiah told reporters.
“CM Kumaraswamy never implemented decisions taken by coordination committee. Only during meetings he would approve those decisions and never work on it. Most of his decisions were unilateral, he used to ignore Congress legislators. The ministers were not taken into confidence. That’s the reason why the coalition government collapsed. Kumaraswamy and Devegowda are to be blamed for the BJP government in the state” Siddaramaiah added while saying that Devegowda’s remarks against him were politically motivated.
“Devegowda is an expert in pulling down governments. History is open for all to see. Don’t we know what he did when Dharam Singh government was in power in the state? Devegowda was responsible for the collapse of Dharam Singh government after Kumaraswamy joined hands with BJP to form government” he further added.
“Similarly, Devegowda once again was the reason behind the collapse of BJP-JD(S) government when Kumaraswamy withdrew support to BJP without giving CM post to Yediyurappa” he remarked adding that he knows Devegowda well as he has been in JD(S).
