Lost Chamundeshwari constituency as some in Congress did not want me as CM again: Siddaramaiah

Mysuru: Former chief minister Siddaramaiah here on Friday blamed a section of leaders within the Congress for his defeat in Chamundeshwari constituency in the 2018 Assembly elections. "If our party won, there were chances of my becoming CM again. Some of our own party members did not want me to be chief minister," he shared.

Expressing his feelings openly for the first time at Chamundeshwari constituency where he lost previous election with a margin of 36,042 votes against G.T. Devegowda, he said, "This is the constituency which made me MLA five times, and gave me power as well as pain. I never thought I would lose that badly in Chamundeshwari constituency. To repay people of the constituency for ensuring my victory in 2006 Assembly by-election, I thought of contesting my last election from Chamundeshwari. I thought I will retire from politics by contesting in the constituency which gave me political re-birth in 2006 by-election. But people did not give me the opportunity. BJP, JD (S) and even our own party members are reason for it. Our mistake is that we did not campaign properly. Some in my own party did not want me to be chief minister. So they conspired to ensure my defeat in Chamundeshwari. People showered a lot of love on me when I visited villages, but people did not vote for me. I do not know if I would contest again in this constituency. But I could not tolerate the pain. Our party workers came to me on the election day and said I would win. Did they not know I would lose? They should have told the truth.

It pained me a lot. Had I not won in Badami, what would have happened to my future and State. It would have gone into dark. I went to Badami only to file nominations. I have presented 13 budgets. I came up with 8 budgets before I became CM. The kind of pro poor programmes which I gave in my budgets as CM, was not given by any right from K C Reddy government. Mr Yeddyurappa wears green shawl to represent his pro farmer stand. But he has reduced 7 kg of rice being given for poor to just five kg. Is it not anti poor? Will people not be angry? It is people's money and can those who do not have heart to give people's money to people, be called humans?" he wondered.

He said those who worked against the party must leave on their own. "Those who worked against the party were real villains. Party is like mother. For silly reasons, one should not resort to anti-party activities. If they do not want to be in the party and if they do not have trust in the leadership, they should quit."

"In the entire Karnataka history, ours was the first government to fulfill all the promises made in our manifesto before elections. I did not focus on any one particular community when I came up with programmes like Anna Bhagya, Krishi Bhagya, Indira Canteen, Vidya Siri, Ksheera Bhagya for school children. Why was there opposition to me? Had I looted? Was there any black mark on me? Had I been to jail? It was only jealousy. I was the first person after Devraj Urs who completed five years term. Even S M Krishna or J H Patel or even H D Devegowda or Bangarappa did not complete five years term," he said.

On Congress loss in previous elections, he said, "BJP-JD (S) got into internal understanding. And they fielded a weak candidate against a chief minister in Badami.