Daijiworld Media Network - Bangalore (SP)

Bangalore, Sep 22: Reacting to former Chief Minister H D Kumaraswami's allegation that the Congress Party had helped the BJP to go scot-free, by not vociferously taking the government to task for various scams in the floor of the assembly, because of a tacit understanding reached between the BJP and the Congress, leader of the opposition in the assembly, Siddaramaiah and Chief Minister Yeddyurappa hit back at Kumaraswami, terming his statement as irresponsible.

"People are fully conversant with the changing colours of Kumaraswami. It would be in his interests to keep his mouth shut. The JDS has the dubious distinction of joining hands with other parties for the sake of grabbing power, and the father-son duo of Deve Gowda and Kumarawami had a major role in the decision of the JDS to joint hands with the BJP in the past," he said.

"The Congress will never sacrifice its ideals and join hands with the communal BJP like this father-son duo, which engineered the collapse of the Dharam Singh government for the sake of becoming the state Chief Minister. Kumaraswami and Yeddyurappa have been equally responsible for the economic bankruptcy staring the state in the face now," Siddu charged.  He also said, he does not want to get any advice from Deve Gowda, who worked in tandem with Gundurao of the Congress, when he was the Chief Minister and Gowda’s close association with Devaraj Urs, when the latter was the Chief Minister.

Just because the JDS and the Congress have an understanding in the floor of the assembly, does not mean that the Congress Party will toe the line as dictated by the JDS. A few scandals the JDS raised in the assembly, have now boomeranged on their own leaders, and Yeddyurappa and Kumaraswami have contributed immensely to the worsening corruption situation in the state, he commented. He also criticized Kumaraswami for demanding to hand over every scandal to the Central Bureau of Investigation(CBI), reminding him that his father had once termed CBI as 'Chor Bachao Institute' and questioning the decision of Kumaraswami not to entrust the Rs 150 crore mining corruption scam he was involved with, to the CBI.

Yeddyurappa launched a verbal tirade against H D Kumaraswami, by terming his statement 'childish'. "Everyone knows that the Congress Party and the JDS had struck a deal as per which, the JDS did not field its candidate from Govindarajanagar constituency to ensure that the Congress candidate wins from there. The JDS has joined hands with Congress Party on many occasions. People know whom to trust," he said.