Lingayat row cost us our seats: Defeated Congressmen

Bengaluru: The dust may have settled after the Assembly polls but the bitterness has not vanished which became apparent at a meeting of defeated Congress candidates in the city which saw  MLAs from North Karnataka who lost the elections, launching a scathing attack on former CM Siddaramaiah, albeit indirectly, blaming him for the Lingayat religion 'fiasco' which cost them their seats.

Defeated MLAs from south Karnataka were more concerned about the Congress cosying up to the JD(S) and asserted that this would backfire as they had seen  Chief Minister, H. D. Kumaraswamy  openly backing BJP leaders to defeat them in the recent polls. The Congress stands to lose a lot if it kept playing second fiddle to Deve Gowda's party and more so with Lok Sabha polls approaching, they cautioned.

Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, some of the defeated legislators said they made the best of the opportunity to tell Siddaramaiah how he had gone terribly wrong on the Lingayat religion issue. "He should not have gone with the version of then water resources minister, M.B. Patil (who had backed religion status for the community).     

We had to blame  Siddaramaiah though we did not name him directly, as he was in charge of the intelligence department and should have known if M.B. Patil's plan was working or not." Leaders from south Karnataka told this newspaper that they warned the party against any tie-up with the JD(S) in future.

"Traditionally, we are strong rivals in this region as there is no BJP here. If the party continues to embrace JD(S), we will surely lose our workers to the BJP, they will work for the saffron party just to ensure the defeat of JD(S) in our region. Therefore, we have told our leaders  not to take any decision in haste as it has become difficult for us to protect the interests of Congress workers," a leader explained.

Siddaramaiah intervened and tried to console the defeated leaders, stating that the decision to join hands with the JD(S) was not his and was taken by central leaders in New Delhi.  "We have to respect their decision. Some of you might be chosen to contest from Lok Sabha seats, therefore, you must strive hard to galvanise workers in your parliamentary constituencies," the former CM was quoted as saying.