Mysuru:  The five crore people of the State will decide who is going to be the Chief Minister of Karnataka in the May 12 Assembly election, not the current Chief Minister Siddharamaiah or the former Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, said JD(S) State President and former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy (HDK).

He was reacting to questions at an interaction with the media organised by the Mysuru District Journalists Association (MDJA) at Patrakarthara Bhavan, here this morning.

Claiming that his party is going to come to power with an absolute majority by garnering 113 seats, he said that he had come to this conclusion after touring the entire State and seeing the good response that people had shown to his party.

Promising that once his party comes to power, he will create two Deputy Chief Ministers posts, he said that out of them one will be reserved for Dalit and another for Backward Classes.

“I consider both Congress and BJP as my enemies. Siddharamaiah keeps talking about JD(S) not getting more than 25 seats. However, I must tell that it is the nightmare about his party losing power. And I don’t consider BJP as a competitor to the JD(S) at all,” he said.

Reiterating that the CM is going to lose both from Chamundeshwari and Badami constituencies from where he is contesting, HDK said that Congress is going to be relegated to the third place, similar to the situation that it had been in 1994.

“The situation has changed drastically from the time CM won in 2013 elections, as many leaders like V. Sreenivasa Prasad, A.H. Vishwanath, S.M. Krishna have quit the party while senior leaders like Mallikarjuna Kharge and Dr. Parameshwar have distanced themselves as the CM has stuck to the migrants from other parties to Congress and hence Siddharamaiah has become a loner today,” he ridiculed.

Mayawati to campaign

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) leader and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati will campaign for his party in the State from Apr.25 beginning from Bengaluru. On Apr. 26 she will be in Chitradurga and again come back on May 5 and 6 to tour Kolar, Bagalkote, Kalaburagi and Raichur, said Kumaraswamy.

Asaduddin Owaisi, President of the All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen, has assured his support to JD(S) and since his party has always stood for Secularism, 10 to 15 seats have been given for Muslims, he claimed.

In his address before the interaction, HDK said that he had toured Israel to study drip irrigation and how to improve drinking water facility, which he will implement if he comes to power.

MDJA President C.K. Mahendra, Vice President M. Subramanya, General Secretary K.J. Lokesh Babu, Secretary B. Raghavendra and Treasurer L.G. Dakshinamurthy were present at the interaction.