Mysuru: Chief Minister Siddharamaiah yesterday defended writer Prof. Chandrashekar Patil who is in the eye of a storm for making political statements during the recently concluded 83rd Akhila Bharata Kannada Sahitya Sammelana in Mysuru. Patil, who is popularly known as Champa, had appealed to the audience to vote for secular parties in the coming elections.

Speaking to media persons on his arrival at Mysore Airport at Mandakalli here, Siddharamaiah termed it “right” on the part of Champa in the wake of scathing attacks launched by Union Minister H.N. Ananth Kumar and MP Pratap Simha. He said as the BJP leaders do not believe in secularism, they are making baseless allegations against Champa.

“With this, they have also admitted that they are not committed to secularism and they are communal. The BJP issuing such statements is not new and Champa’s statements have been twisted to get political mileage,” he said.

He clarified that the Congress party has never felt the necessity of using littérateurs for political campaigns. “We in the Congress do not manipulate or use littérateurs for political gains and are strongly wedded to secular beliefs,” he said.

To a query on not inviting members of Mysore royal family to the three-day Literary Meet, he said that the onus of inviting dignitaries to the Meet was on Kannada Sahitya Parishat.

On JD(S) claims of coming to power in Karnataka, the CM said that it was impossible for the JD(S) to come to power independently. “Kumaraswamy has announced that a Dalit or a minority community leader will be made a Deputy CM if JD(S) comes to power. But the question here is whether JD(S) can come to power independently at all?” he said.

The Chief Minister also came in support of his Cabinet colleague Vinay Kulkarni whose name has cropped up in the murder of BJP leader    Yogish Gowda.