Bangalore: State By-polls - Siddaramaiah Quits as Opposition Leader
Bangalore, Sep 16 (IANS): Leader of Opposition in the Karnataka assembly Siddaramaiah of the Congress party Thursday quit his post owning moral responsibility for the defeat of his party's candidates in the two by-polls held Sep 13.
"The outcome is not a mandate against the party but I have resigned owning moral responsibility," he told reporters, following the defeat of the party nominees in the by-polls for the Kadur and Gulbarga South assembly seats.
The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) snatched the Kadur seat in Chikmagalur district from Congress but conceded the Gulbarga South in Gulbarga district to the Janata Dal-Secular (JDS).
BJP's Y.C. Vishwanath, a medical practitioner, won in Kadur while Aruna Patil Revoor of JDS won in Gulbarga South.
The by-polls were necessitated by the death of sitting members K.M. Krishnamurthy (Kadur-Congress) and Chandrashekar Patil Revoor (Gulbarga South-BJP). Voting took place Sep 13 and counting Thursday.
Siddaramaiah announced his resignation soon after sending the letter to party president Sonia Gandhi.
The state Congress president R.V. Deshpande, whose term has ended, blamed the party's poor show on "BJP's money power and misuse of official machinery".
A jubilant JDS state president H.D. Kumaraswamy hailed the victory of his party candidate Aruna Patil Revoor in Gulbarga South as the victory of the people of the constituency.
Aruna Patil Revoor fought on the JDS ticket as BJP did not nominate her following the death of her husband Chandrashekar Patil Revoor.