Assembly polls as scheduled, says Siddaramaiah
Asked if there would be a Cabinet expansion in the near future, he said, We will do it shortly.
Mysuru: Dismissing any possibility of an early poll in the state, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday said it would be held as scheduled.
“There won’t be any early poll. It will be held only in April or May,” he said, when asked by reporters on his arrival at the Mysuru airport if the state elections would be held along with the Gujarat elections as claimed by the BJP.
On Mr Ahmed Patel’s victory in the Rajya Sabha elections in Gujarat, he said. “BJP leaders tried to buy Congress MLAs, exposing their true colours. Mr Patel’s victory, is a victory for democracy.”
As for rumours about more income tax raids on Congress leaders in the state, he asserted, “No one is scared of income tax raids. Mere raids doesn’t mean someone is a culprit. They only verify I-T returns filed by a particular person to check if there is any suppression of tax. It happens all the time. But BJP leaders are intentionally targeting Congress leaders.”
Asked if there would be a Cabinet expansion in the near future, he said, “We will do it shortly.”
Once again claiming that his government was not trying to divide the Lingayat community, he said he had only offered to consider the demand for a separate religious tag for it if the Veerashaiva and Lingayat leaders were united on the issue. “Even then the state government is not empowered to decide on this. We can only recommend it to the Centre, which will take a decision. I have not proposed this and have no personal stake in the matter.”
Visits Chamarajnagar
Proving that he has no time for superstition, CM Siddaramaiah visited Chamarajnagar town for the 7th time and Chamarajnagar district for the 15th time on Thursday, despite the belief that any CM who visits Chamarajnagar is jinxed and will lose power soon afterwards, “I am visiting Chamarajnagar so many times mainly to break the jinx attached to the place. In fact my seat has become stronger after I visited it,” he said, speaking after laying the foundation stone for a memorial of former Governor B Rachaiah at Aalur. On releasing water to TN, he said water was being released to Karnataka’s farmers as well since Thursday.