MANDYA: Former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s son and Varuna MLA Dr Yatindra Siddaramaiah on Saturday expressed his wish to see his father become Chief Minister again.
Speaking at Malavalli in Mandya district, Yatindra said, “Being a son, I want to see my father becoming Karnataka CM once again. Of course, my father has said that he wants to become the Chief Minister again. He will take the state on the path of further development. Siddaramaiah’s second constituency is still not finalised”, he added.
Former CM Siddaramaiah has expressed his intention to contest in Varuna and Kolar constituencies, but the party has only confirmed his nomination in the first list.
Yathindra’s statement confirms the ongoing tussle between Siddaramaiah and state Congress chief D K Shivakumar. The leadership tussle between Siddaramaiah and D K Shivakumar is “pushing the party towards darkness”, said a senior leader of the party.
The fight for the chief ministerial post in the upcoming Assembly election in the state in May continues to deepen with the war of words flaring up from both the Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar camps. The war has put the senior Congress leaders in a spot of bother about the present shape of the party. According to most party leaders, infighting has already become a “nightmare” for many Congress leaders.
The BJP has marked its entry into the political crisis surrounding Congress as BJP state president Nalin Kumar Kateel tweeted, “Party workers from @siddaramaiah and @DKShivakumar who have disturbed the sleep of many in their party due to the illusion of CM. Disillusioned. The people of the state know that the weak high command is unable to fix the internal conflict, and if power is given to him, conflict is guaranteed”.
Meanwhile, according to a Congress source, the second list of Congress candidates will also be released soon. Soon after the Election Commission of India announced the schedule for the Karnataka Assembly elections, Siddaramaiah on Wednesday alleged that the ruling BJP has made the election system corrupt and hoped that the Election Commission will conduct free and fair elections.
“The BJP has made the election system corrupt. They have started ‘Operation Lotus’. They spend lots of money. The Election Commission should conduct the election in a free and fair manner. We hope they will do it”, Siddaramaiah had said. However, welcoming the Election Commission’s decision to hold a single-phase Assembly election in Karnataka on May 10, he said that his party was prepared for the polls. “I welcome that this election is happening in a single phase,” he had added. (ANI)