Siddaramaiah ignored MLAs' concerns in JDS-Cong rule: Somashekar

BJP leaders launched a multi-pronged attack on former CM Siddaramaiah at a time when he remained a strong contender for the Karnataka CM post despite a greater challenge mounted by D K Shivakumar. After former minister K Sudhakar criticised Siddaramaiah, yet another BJP leader took potshots at former CM Siddaramaiah on the latter's role in the collapse of the JDS-Congress government in 2019.

Bengaluru (Karnataka) : Yet another BJP leader took to Twitter on Wednesday to take potshots at former CM Siddaramaiah on the latter's role in the collapse of the JDS-Congress government in 2019. BJP's Yeshwanthapura MLA S T Somashekar Gowda said that none can deny the truth that Siddaramaiah's stance led some of the MLAs at that time to quit the Congress which in turn led to the fall of the coalition government.

Somashekar Gowda, who won from the Yeshwanthapura segment with a 15,000 margin in the 2023 polls, said that despite being the Chairman of the Coordination Committee during the Congress-JDS government, Sidddaramaiah always expressed his helplessness to address the concerns of MLAs. "No one can deny the truth that this pushed some of us to quit the party and go for by-polls," he said.

Somashekar Gowda's statement came just hours after former minister and BJP leader Dr K Sudhakar made a similar allegation that Siddaramaiah was behind the collapse of the JDS-Congress regime in 2019. Sudhakar asked whether it was possible to deny Siddaramaiah's role in the collapse of the coalition government.

Sudhakar said that the MLAs often went to Siddaramaiah, who was the then Coordination Committee Chairman, to complain about the injustice done to them in the then JDS-Congress coalition government in 2018. He said that Siddaramaiah claimed that the works of his own constituency and his district were not being done.

The politically sensitive statements issued by BJP leaders Somashekar Gowda and Sudhakar are creating ripples in Karnataka political circles. Somashekar Gowda won as MLA on the BJP ticket in recent elections while Sudhakar lost the poll. Somashekar won from the Yeshwanthapura Assembly constituency, which is located in the Bangalore Urban District.

In the 2018 assembly election, Somashekhar won Yeshwanthapura on a Congress ticket with a margin of over 10,000. He was among the MLAs who quit the Congress and joined the BJP. Somashekar won in the 2019 byelection on a BJP ticket.