I will continue in power after LS polls: Chief Minister asserts

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday asserted that he will continue to hold his position even after the completion of general elections.

Dismissing the Opposition claims on his “shaky” position, Siddaramaiah told the Assembly that his position will not change after the elections. “My government is stable and will continue to remain so for the next four years and four months. As a matter of fact, even the Opposition parties would continue in their respective positions,” the chief minister asserted. 

Siddaramaiah said in his political career spanning 30 years, he had been elected as MLA for seven times. He said had resigned on three-four occasions when his self-esteem was at stake.

“My hands are clean and I have maintained dignity. I will not remain in power at the cost of my self-respect,” Siddaramaiah said when replying to the discussion on the motion of thanks to Governor’s address.

On resignation

However, Basavaraj Bommai (BJP) questioned the chief minister whether he would be resigning in future. Y S V Datta of JD(S) sought to know whether Siddaramaiah was asserting himself to send a message to the Congress high command or to the people of the State. Unperturbed by the probing questions, the chief minister said that the message was directed at people.

Referring to the allegation by BJP leader Jagadish Shettar that administration has collapsed in the State, Siddaramaiah said he doesn’t have any illusion that he could set right everything in eight months. He claimed that corruption cannot be eradicated in “such a short time.”

He also retorted that governance had deteriorated during the previous BJP regime.
Pooh-poohing Shettar’s claims that the chief minister was losing control over officers and that there were fissures in the ruling party, Siddaramaiah said such comments based on media reports were far from truth. Taking a dig at the BJP, the chief minister said the Congress MLAs were not resorting to “resort politics.”  

‘Not tainted’

The chief minister defended the induction of D K Shivakumar and Roshan Baig into the Cabinet claiming that they were not “tainted.”

He said the charge sheet filed against Shivakumar in a case alleging denotification, has been stayed while only an FIR had been filed against Baig. He said that Santosh Lad resigned from the Cabinet “on his own.”

He also defended the induction of DK SHivakumar and Roshan Baig into the cabinet saying they were not tainted.

“In my cabinet, no one is tainted. The charge sheet filed against Shivakumar in a denotification case has been stayed. There is no charge sheet against Baig but only an FIR. Santosh Lad resigned
as minister on his own,” he said.