JD(S) chief flays Siddaramaiah for not bringing out CMP

The verbal joust within the ruling Congress-JD(S) coalition continued with JD(S) state chief A H Vishwanath yet again attacking CLP leader Siddaramaiah over the latter's "failure" to bring out a common minimum programme even after a year of the government coming to power.

Vishwanath also highlighted his own absence and that of Congress state president Dinesh Gundu Rao in the ruling coordination committee headed by Siddaramaiah.

In a pointer that relations between the Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) were still rocky with some leaders of both the parties engaging in verbal duels, the JD(S) leader asserted Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy has the capability to "tolerate the torture".

"What I have been insisting on is that Siddaramaiah being the coordinator of the coalition government should coordinate between the two parties and more importantly, he should draw the Common Minimum Programme (CMP).

"We have not yet been able to lay down how the coalition government should function," Vishwanath told reporters in Kolar.

He said drawing up the CMP was the job of state chiefs of Congress and JD(S) who were ironically not present in the coordination committee.

When asked why he targeted Siddaramaiah time and again, Vishwanath retorted, "Is the coordination committee a personal thing?... the coordination committee has the responsibility to coordinate between the two parties to give good governance through programmes and policies. I am only talking about it."

The JD(S) state chief Wednesday backed Congress MLA Roshan Baig, who recently called AICC general secretary K C Venugopal a "buffoon".

Baig had also slammed Siddaramaiah for "dividing" Hindu society by attempting to give a separate religion tag to Lingayat community and "abusing" the Vokkaligas during his tenure in the top post.

While admitting that he did support Baig, Vishwanath clarified that he did not always criticise former chief minister Siddaramaiah.

"As the JD(S) state president, I am only reminding the government about its duties within my limits. Other than this, I do not have anything personal against Siddaramaiah," he said.

With the growing clamour within a section of Congress for Siddaramaiah to become the chief minister once again, Vishwanath had hit out at the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader, raising questions about the former's performance in the previous government, and had termed the demand as "chamchagiri" (flattery).