How CM Siddaramaiah’s plan unfolded

Bengaluru: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah may have claimed that he was not involved in the Congress-JD(S) alliance, but sources said that the talks started only after his green signal. He decided to go ahead with the strategy three days ago after meeting Kuruba leaders.

A highly placed source in the Congress, who was privy to the meetings, told Deccan Chronicle that a day after the local body election results were announced, a worried Siddaramaiah called select Kuruba leaders to his house for consultation. He asked them what he would do if the party high command asked him to resign.

Though the leaders discussed the issue for an entire day, they could not come to any conclusion. The next day, the leaders observed that since 48 hours had passed after the results, the high command might not ask Mr Siddaramaiah to quit. They suggested that Mr Siddaramaiah could forge an alliance with the JD(S) to keep the BJP out of power.

Mr Siddaramaiah handpicked some of the MLAs and ministers who are close to him and drafted them with this task. He chose Rajarajeshwari Nagar MLA Munirathna Naidu and K.R. Puram MLA Bhairati Basavaraju, who spirited the corporators away to a Kerala resort, sources explained.