Chief Minister completes four years in office today

Bengaluru: Today, Siddharamaiah will complete four years as Chief Minister of Karnataka and having completed four years and basking in the victory of his party in the two recent by-polls to Nanjangud and Gundlupet, the CM appeared in no mood to entertain the charge-sheet released by the Bharatiya Janata Party against his Government.

Speaking to reporters here yesterday, he called it baseless and politically motivated. “Who can file a charge-sheet against us? These are a list of baseless allegations. Several BJP leaders, including its State President, B.S. Yeddyurappa, are themselves facing charges in various Courts. But none of the Congress leaders are in such a predicament,” he noted.

While he asserted in response to a question that the Congress would return to power in the 2018 elections, Siddharamaiah was unwilling to commit on whether he would be Chief Minister again, saying it was up to the party High Command to decide. When reminded of his earlier statement that he would be the next Chief Minister, he claimed he had said this in a different context.

“Someone said that I should continue as Chief Minister and I replied that I would. But it is the Legislature party that elects the Chief Minister and this has to be endorsed by the party High Command,” he added.

Visibly irritated when his attention was drawn to a survey that called Karnataka the most corrupt State in the country,      he shot back, “How can the views of 6,000 people in a State with a six crore population become the voice of everyone,”      he questioned.

This post was published on May 13, 2017 6:50 pm