Dalit CM? Contact high command, says Siddaramaiah

Mysuru: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah confirmed on Monday that he was going to Delhi on May 26 to discuss the Cabinet reshuffle and candidates for elections to the Karnataka Legislative Council.

Asked for his opinion on having a Dalit Chief Minister for the state, he said it was left to the high command. Mr Siddaramaiah, who was speaking to reporters here, came down hard on the BJP for planning a campaign to showcase the acheivements of the Modi government in the state, claiming  he had given up plans to mark his three years in office with a massive convention focusing on his government’s achievements owing to the drought.

“We wanted to hold a mega convention to mark the completion of our three years in the state. But we cancelled it as the state is in the grip of a severe drought this year. The BJP doesn’t know the problems of the poor and farmers. It has discriminated against the state, and has given us lesser drought relief funds than other states. Disaster management funds are also not being released on time and now they want to spend crores on showcasing their performance over the last two years,” he said disparagingly.

As for state BJP chief, B S Yeddyurappa’s comment that the Congress would be ruined in the state and it would not even get opposition status in the coming assembly elections , he said, “Nobody can make India Congress mukth. And no matter what they do, they cannot  come to power in the state.”

Asserting that the Congress would return to power in 2018, he reminded the BJP that it had lost the opposition status to the JDS in the last assembly poll in the state.