Mysuru: Even as Congress president, Rahul Gandhi seems determined to resign following his party's poor showing in the recent Lok Sabha poll, former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah insisted on Thursday that he had no choice but to continue as AICC head.
"He has to continue in the present situation as there is no alternative to him," he said, speaking to reporters here.
Coming down hard on the last Modi government in the country, he said the economy, the youth and farmers had all suffered during the past five years and yet the people hailed it as BJP leaders indulged in "speeches, drama and lies." "And if we speak the truth people don't like it," he added.
As for the Pulwama attack on the CRPF convoy that left over 40 jawans dead, he said, " when our soldiers were travelling in a sensitive zone prone to terrorist activity, what precautions were taken for their safety although they had access to intelligence from the IB? What were these agencies doing? Mr Modi miserably failed, intelligence and IB failed and yet it was said that he was patriotic and only he could save the country."
Asked about allegations that home minister, Amit Shah was misusing his office to clear the cases against him, he said, "Everyone knows what he did when he was home minister of Gujarat and now he has become home minister of the country. Why did he go to jail for two years? If we tell the truth, people don't like us.”
Coming to state affairs, Mr Siddaramaiah said to a question on allegations of involvement of a few MLAs in the IMA scam, that the matter was being looked into by SIT.
On senior Congress leader, Roshan Baig's claim that his name has been dragged into the IMA issue only because he had spoken out against the Congress, he said, "Let him say whatever he has to say before the SIT.”
To another query, the Congress Legislature Party leader confirmed that the Cabinet would be expanded.
