Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, May 17: "I am extremely surprised that Congress tasted defeat in the assembly election in Karnataka in spite of giving the people very good schemes. I had firmly believed that our party would rise to power again, as during the tour of the state I never witnessed any anti incumbency wave. I fully take responsibility for this drubbing," said outgoing chief minister of Karnataka, Siddaramaiah, as his voice choked and tears welled his eyes.

When speaking at the parliamentary party meeting which began four hours behind schedule on Wednesday May 16 waiting for the arrival of new MLAs, Siddaramaiah ostensibly was overtaken by emotions. Sources said that when he offered to take entire responsibility for the poor performance of Congress party with emotionally charged voice, senior leaders of the party pacified him.

Exercising control over his emotions, Siddaramaiah stated that he was surprised by the result of the election in spite of providing best administration and giving popular schemes. He felt that the main reason for this debacle might be the malicious propaganda engaged in by BJP against Congress party all over the state. He lamented the fact that some people continue to find fault with him in spite of providing excellent rule to the state.

It is said that Siddaramaiah said that at this juncture, there is a need to keep communal parties away from corridors of power and therefore, it is proposed to extend support to JD(S). Mentioning that the party high command too is in favour of this, he suggested to pass a single line resolution pledging support to that party. The meeting passed resolution as desired and authorized Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president, Dr G Parameshwar, to convey this decision to JD(S) leader, H D Kumaraswamy.

Some legislators argued that mistakes in identifying winning candidates and issuance of tickets to wrong persons proved to be costly for the party and that the party otherwise would have got ten to 15 more seats. Central leader Ghulam Nabi Azad, intervened and put an end to this discussion.

The first meeting however stopped short of electing leader of the legislature party. It is said that this decision was not taken as the leaders wanted to wait for the coalition arrangement to stabilize. As different scenarios would need leaders of differing capabilities, the leadership has decided to wait for the developments to take shape and take a decision about choosing leader of the legislature party later.