Mysuru: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said on Monday that the rebel Janata Dal (Secular) MLAs including Chamarajpet MLA Zameer Ahmed Khan, would join the Congress by January. He was speaking to reporters at the helipad in Nagamangala in Mandya district.
Nagamangala MLA Cheluvarayaswamy, when contacted, said the seven JD(S) leaders planned to resign from the party between January15 and 30. “We are ready to resign on the day that Mr Siddaramaiah asks us to. Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi himself will come on the day that we join the Congress,” he added.
Later, speaking after laying the foundation stone for several developmental projects at Nagamangala, Mr Siddaramaiah admitted that if he had stayed back in the JD(S) he would not have become Chief Minister. “I was supposed to have become Chief Minister in 1996 or 2004 . Although I had the support of the MLAs, JD(S) leaders prevented me from becoming CM and later expelled me from the party,” he regretted.
Denying that Health Minister, Ramesh Kumar was upset at the modifications being made to the Bill to regularise private hospitals , the Chief Minister pointed out that the discussions were held in his presence with the agitating doctors. “How can he be upset when he was present at the discussions ? We have made slight changes to the Bill now and it will be presented in the Legislature soon,” he said.
Asserting that the Congress would come to power again in the state, he said no Parivarthana Yathre or Vikas Yathre would have any impact on the people. “We have come up with so many programmes that they will bring us back to power again. Our dream is to build a Nava Karnataka,” he asserted.
Responding to BJP state chief, B S Yeddyurappa’s claim that he was behaving like a “commission agent” and getting kickbacks on deals, he retorted, “What moral right does a person who has been to jail, have to say this? There are several FIRS against him. If these allegations against me are proved with documents I will retire from politics.”
