Siddaramaiah is not secular, he is casteist: Prasad

Former minister V Srinivas Prasad said that the Chief Minister has no moral right to call the BJP a communal party as Siddaramaiah himself is casteist and has been systematically suppressing Dalit leadership and Muslim leadership in his own party.

Stating how Siddaramaiah has been an opportunist and has been exploiting and ditching all those who helped him reach this position, Prasad pointed out that Siddaramaiah's own strength was just 8,327 votes in the 1980 Lok Sabha election in which the winner M V Rajasekhara Murthy polled 1.95 lakh votes, the nearest rival Tulasidasappa secured 1.12 lakh votes and the distant third candidate Gurupadaswamy also polled 80,000 votes. "Of his 8,0000-odd votes from nine Assembly constituencies, his share from the Chamundeshwari constituency would have been around 1,000 votes. He has forgotten that the 26,616 votes that he polled in the Assembly polls from Chamundeshwari constituency in 1983 were those of the supporters of then leader Kempiregowda," Prasad said.

Even in the recent Nanjangud bypolls, the victory of Congress candidate Kalale Keshavamurthy can be attributed to the JD(S). "The JD(S) had come second in the 2013 polls with 42,000 odd votes. In the bypolls, while the Congress secured 86,000 votes, I garnered 68,000 votes. Of the 86,000 votes of the Congress, 42,000 belong to the Congress. For that, Siddaramaiah and company spent crores of rupees," he said.

"Siddaramaiah was desperate to become chief minister and he took all possible steps, some of them conspiracies, to achieve his lifetime dream. When he launched the Ahinda (Alpasankhyatha, Hindulida, and Dalit) forum, he did not even have a handful of leaders with him. I was invited to launch the convention," he recalled.

"Once, Karnataka was home to able Dalit leaders who were inferior to none. But, one by one, Siddaramaiah reduced them systematically. After the Nanjangud by-elections, Siddaramaiah has become a 'Bramharakshasa'. He has engulfed the entire Congress and the government. KPCC president G Parameshwar is the son of a wealthy Dalit. He bought all the positions in the Congress with money power. He does not have any movement background. He aspired to become chief minister. He does not know the worth of the KPCC president. Now, he is not even fit to be a district Congress president," Prasad said.

"Mallikarjuna Kharge is another opportunist. When he lost the Assembly polls, he jumped to the Lok Sabha and became Union minister. Now, he is a leader of a party in the Lok Sabha which cannot even be recognised as a party with a meagre 44 MPs. To make his son MLA and later minister, he surrendered to Siddaramaiah. H Anjaneya is enslaved to Siddaramaiah as he is very grateful to him for making him minister. Public Works Minister H C Mahadevappa's background is known to all in Mysuru region. He once claimed that his family was so poor that he used to swim across the river to go to school. Now, he claims that his ancestors used to host non-veg feasts for people at the foot of Chamundi Hill during Karthika month," he said.

Due to the attitude of the Dalit leaders in the Congress, and the cunningness of Siddaramaiah, the community is left with no leaders. However, Siddaramaiah, who claims to be a secular messiah, has been safeguarding his community people and facilitating all growth prospectus for them, Prasad said.