Secular icon Siddu made me work as CM with my hands tied: HD Kumaraswamy

Hubballi: Dubbing opposition leader in the assembly Siddaramaiah a “perfectly secular man” in a sarcastic tone, former chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy on Monday took potshots at him claiming that several Congress leaders like him had imposed curbs on the previous coalition government headed by him though they had come to his doorstep urging him to form the government by promising unconditional support. The coalition government ultimately collapsed earlier this year in July.

His remarks came in the backdrop of Siddaramaiah's statement that all Lingayats do not favour CM B.S. Yediyurappa and all Vokkaligas will not support Kumaraswamy. Reacting to the reported objection of Siddaramaiah to former minister D.K. Shivakumar holding a JD(S) flag during his felicitation on his return from a jail in Delhi, Kumaraswamy said that there was no need to attach much importance to it as the incident happened because his party workers supported the Congress leader on humanitarian grounds.

“D.K. Shivakumar is a Congressman. He has nothing to do with the JD(S). We should not attribute a different meaning to his gesture to hold our party flag when our party workers celebrated his return from jail. I suppose Siddaramaiah is a secular leader and we are communal,” he quipped taking a dig at the opposition leader.

Criticizing Siddaramaiah for his claim that he had provided free rice to the poor, Kumaraswamy claimed that he had to fight to mobilize Rs 800 crores for the scheme during the tenure of the JD(S)-Congress coalition government.