Quit & face polls: Siddaramaiah

Bengaluru: The Leader of Opposition in Karnataka, Siddaramaiah, on Monday dared Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa to dissolve the Assembly and fight elections if he thinks that the new laws enacted by the Parliament are beneficial to farmers.

"If Yediyurappa considers himself a true farmers' leader, he should shed his saffron shawl and wear a green shawl," Siddaramaiah said.

It can be recalled that Yediyurappa had always worn a green shawl whenever he was sworn in as Chief Minister and never wore a saffron shawl except during party programmes and he had always tried to portray himself as a farmers' leader rather than a BJP leader. Releasing a detailed press note in support of the farmers' agitations against the farm laws, Siddaramaiah asserted that Yediyurappa hurriedly passed these laws in the Assembly, indicating that his only ambition was to stick to power at any cost and not to protect the farmers in the state.

Siddaramaiah said the BJP has been stumped with thousands of farmers descending on the roads to protest against these laws.

"The BJP might have thought that these laws could be passed without any protest due to the Covid-19 pandemic. But the pandemic didn't deter the farmers from coming out and hitting the streets in such big numbers," he said. "Be it irrigation projects involving river basins, Mahadayi, Krishna or Cauvery, his party's central leaders have not helped him in anyway," he added.