Bengaluru: Opposition Leader and former Chief Minister Siddharamaiah on Thursday asked his party MLAs not to project him as the Chief Ministerial face for the 2023 Assembly polls.

The statement came amid a growing list of MLAs who openly favoured him as CM face despite diktat from the party  leadership, which has irked KPCC President D.K. Shivakumar, who is also nursing Chief Ministerial ambitions.

“I don’t know, I don’t want to react to that… I have never said that I will become Chief Minister, but I will still request MLAs don’t make statements (projecting me as) next Chief Minister,” Siddharamaiah said in response to a question on Shivakumar’s statement asking him to rein in MLAs projecting him as next CM.

Siddharamaiah, however, playing down statements by some MLAs projecting him as the next CM and maintaining it as their personal views, said: “I can’t do anything about it… I’m not concerned about it.”