Yediyurappa is 'incapable' CM: Siddaramaiah

Bengaluru: Calling B S Yediyurappa an "incapable Chief Minister" of Karnataka who "failed" Kannadigas, senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah on Tuesday said he was now an "unwanted child" to the BJP high command and State leaders were also waiting to push him out.

The Leader of Opposition in the State Assembly in a series of tweets also said that the dilemma of BJP leaders was lack of an alternative leader for Yediyurappa in their party.

"Yediyurappa is an incapable CM of Karnataka who failed Kannadigas. BJP high command is under the assumption that they can turn things around by replacing the CM. The reality of BJP is that they are a sinking ship and there is no use of changing just the sailor," Siddaramaiah said in a tweet.

"Yediyurappa is an unwanted child to BJP high command now and Karnataka BJP leaders are also waiting to push him out. But their dilemma is lack of alternate leader in their party," he said in another tweet. Speculations have been rife for some time now that efforts were on, within a section of the ruling BJP to exert pressure for unseating Yediyurappa.

Amid speculations, Yediyurappa on Sunday had said that he would continue in the top post as long as the BJP high command had confidence in him, and he had no confusion about it. Siddaramaiah, a former CM, had several times in the past claimed that Yediyurappa would be replaced.

Meanwhile, KPCC president D K Shivakumar has asserted that everyone in the party is working in tandem to ensure the party's triumph in the 2023 Assembly elections. His statement has come amid reports regarding internal rifts and factionalism in the State Congress, with both him and Siddaramaiah reportedly nursing ambition to become chief minister after next Assembly polls.

"Our victory in Maski has sent across the message up till Delhi. We lost Belgaum by a wafer-thin margin. We are analysing our performance in Basavakalyana... people are fed up with this incompetent government and they have given an ultimatum to BJP," Shivakumar said, while speaking about the party's performance in the recent by polls.

He also said that teams of Congress workers have already been formed in all 31 districts and 224 Assembly constituencies to organize vaccination camps and help Covid affected families across sections of the society.