PM Modi offered me Chief Minister post, claims HD Kumaraswamy

Bengaluru: Janata Dal-Secular leader and former Karnataka Chief Minister, H. D. Kumaraswamy on Wednesday made a startling revelation in which he claimed that none other than Prime Minister Narendra Modi promised to make him Karnataka's CM soon after Assembly results were announced last year.

Kumaraswamy's revelation assumes significance amid rumours of the ruling party central leaders weighing options to replace incumbent Chief Minister, B.S. Yediyurappa in Karnataka.

It may be recalled that the May 2018 polls threw up a hung Assembly, with the BJP emerging as the single-largest party with 104 seats, it was short of a simple majority by nine seats in the 225-member Assembly (including one nominated member).

The Congress that won 78 seats and the JD(S) with 37 seats, came together to form an alliance to keep the BJP out of power.

Fourteen months after it was formed, the Congress-JD (S) government fell after it lost a trust vote in the Assembly by 99-105 votes. The collapse was brought about by the resignation of 17 legislators.

Kumaraswamy made the revelation while addressing a rally in Tumkuru as part of the JD(S) outreach programme ahead of the by-election to Sira in Tumkuru.

Sira is 122 kms from state capital Bengaluru and is taluka of Tumkuru district.

Kumaraswamy said, "Prime Minister Narendra Modi had promised that nobody would touch me for five years. But due to machinations of Congress party, an illegitimate' government came to power."

Coming down heavily on the Congress party, he asserted that throughout the Assembly election campaign last year, then Congress president, Rahul Gandhi had termed the JD(S) as B team of BJP, but in reality, now everyone knows who is backing whom.

Kumaraswamy called the Congress party as 'a master of double game and double speak'. "Congress party's game of double speak started to play ultimately resulted in toppling my government in the state and facilitated to allow illegitimate government to come to power," he lashed out.

In the same breath, he quickly added that even though he had never wanted to be Chief Minister, it was forcibly imposed upon him despite the JD(S) leaders asking the Congress party to choose a leader from its own stable.