Mysuru: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said that there is no question of hung assembly in Karnataka as the first part of a survey he had commissioned has clearly given the Congress a clear majority. The second round of the survey will be done in January, he said.
On the fate of the Congress and the number of seats his party would win in the next year’s assembly election, Mr Siddaramaiah, on his arrival at the Mysuru airport on Friday, said, “If I reveal the number, the opposition may dispute it. My purpose of getting the survey done was for our own information, to know the situation in the state and not to make it public.”
On state BJP president B.S. Yeddyurappa’s statement that Mr Siddarmaiah will have to leave Mysuru with his luggage after the elections, he said, “Mr Yeddyurappa is deluded. He cannot become a chief minister under any circumstance. Congress will come to power again.”
On a comment by Union minister Ananthkumar Hegde against him and the language used by certain BJP leaders, Mr Siddaramaiah said, “As Purandaradasa says, tongue speaks one’s culture. Many of us, including me, are from villages. Can we not use language that is much worse? Just because Mr Manishankar Iyer used a negative word about Prime Minister, Congress suspended him. That is the culture of Congress. We can’t expect any such decisions from BJP. What else can we expect from communalists!”
Asked whether secular forces should unite to defeat communal forces, he said, “We are very strong on our own. There is no secular party other than Congress in Karnataka.”
