My government did not try to divide Lingayats, Veerashaivas: Siddaramaiah

Hubballi: Former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who ended his five-day tour of Badami constituency on Monday, lamented that the people had not voted for the Congress despite the several pro-poor programmes launched by his government.

“People did not vote the Congress to power again despite the several schemes which my government launched like the Anna Bhagya which have not been introduced anywhere in the country,” he regretted. But he noted that the party had secured 38 per cent of the votes polled as against 36 per cent by the BJP, which however managed to get more seats.

Explaining that the Congress had forged an alliance with the JD(S) to form the government just to keep the “communal BJP “ out of power in the state, he said his party legislators did not give in to BJP leaders, who offered them Rs 50 crore to Rs 100 crore as inducement to join their party.

Lashing out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for failing to resolve the Mahadayi water dispute, he claimed the Congress had done its best to resolve it. On charges that he had tried to divide the Veerashaiva-Lingayats, he said the Congress only worked to unite communities and assured that the present coalition government would look into the demand for separate religion status for the community Claiming that he had lost the election in Chamundeshwari as people there had fallen prey to money power and the “political conspiracy” of other parties, he said he was glad the voters of Badami did not fall victim to such a plot and promised to make it a model constituency.

Mr Siddaramaiah was accompanied by his son and MLA, Dr Yatindra and Congress leaders, S R Patil, R B Timmapur, H Y Meti, B B Chimmanakatti on his tour to thank the people of Badami for electing him.