Siddaramaiah taunts JD(S) on its ‘dwindling strength’

“I built the JD(S), but I am here (with the Congress) now. When I was the JD(S) State president, it had won 59 Assembly seats. Now, its strength has reduced to 18. In the next elections, its tally will get reduced to a mere two or three,” said Chief Minister Siddaramaiah in the Legislative Assembly, on the last day of the Monsoon Session.

Declaring that the Congress would never again have any tie-up with the JD(S), a party he had a long association with, Mr. Siddaramaiah said: “The JD(S) has become a political untouchable after it joined hands with the BJP.”

Replying to a debate in the Assembly on development, the Chief Minister told the BJP that people of the State had never blessed it with their mandate even when it formed the government twice in the State. “You resorted to unethical practices like operation kamala (inducing political defections) to come to power,” he taunted them.

Mr. Siddaramaiah described his first stint as Chief Minister from 2013 to 2018 as the “golden period” for the State owing to availability of adequate funds.

‘November revolution’

Launching a counter-attack, Leader of the Opposition R. Ashok sought to draw the attention of the Chief Minister on the remarks of former Minister and senior Congress leader K.N. Rajanna that there will be a “revolution by November” in the Congress.

He remarked that the Opposition was eagerly waiting to see how the “revolution” would unfold in November.