Baig speaking out of "thirst for power": Siddaramaiah

Rebuking senior MLA Roshan Baig for his outburst against the party leadership, including him, Congress Legislature Party leader and former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said his act was out of "thirst for power".

"Roshan Baig I don't know maybe because he did not become a Minister and as he was not given a ticket for MP (Lok Sabha election - he has spoken like that)," Siddaramaiah said.

Speaking to reporters in Mysuru, he said, "Because of his thirst for power, such things happen, nothing can be done. The party will take care of it."

Hitting out at Congress leaders for the party's performance in the Lok Sabha polls as projected in the exit polls, Baig on Tuesday held Siddaramaiah's "arrogance" and KPCC chief Dinesh Gundu Rao's "immaturity" responsible for the "flop show". He had also called Venugopal, who is AICC General Secretary in-charge of Karnataka, a "buffoon."

Baig, who was also a Minister in the previous Siddaramaiah government, had also slammed the former Chief Minister for "dividing" Hindu society by attempting to give separate religion tag to Lingayat community and "abusing" the Vokkaliga community during his tenure in the top post.

The attack by Baig, who was miffed over not being inducted into the H D Kumaraswamy led coalition ministry, and being denied a ticket to contest the Lok Sabha polls from Bangalore Central, came after the exit polls predicted a rout for the Congress-JD(S) alliance in Karnataka and NDA's return to power at the Centre.

The KPCC has issued a show cause notice to Baig for his conduct. Meanwhile, Congress' Bangalore Central candidate Rizwan Arshad, in a letter to the AICC General Secretary, has alleged that Baig worked against him and the party in the LokSabha elections.

Baig had a "tacit" understanding with BJP and RSS, he has alleged. Responding to a question about repeated attacks on him by his bete noire and JD(S) state President A H Vishwanath, Siddaramaiah said he would take up the issue at the coalition coordination committee meeting.

"Vishwanath is not from our party, he is from JD(S). I will discuss what Vishwanath has spoken in the coordination committee meeting. I will not talk about it publicly," he said.

Vishwanath, who was earlier in Congress, on Tuesday had welcomed Baig's outburst against the party leadership, saying his remarks were "true" and "a reality."

Last week, with the clamour growing within Congress for Siddaramaiah to become CM once again, Vishwanath had hit out at the CLP leader, raising questions about his performance as Chief Minister in the previous government, and had termed the demand as "chamchagiri" (sycophancy).

His statements had resulted in a public spat between the two, with Siddaramaiah hitting back and asking the JD(S) leadership to intervene. On Saturday too, Vishwanath had raised questions about Siddaramaiah's performance as coordination committee chief and hit out at him for not inducting him and Rao to the committee.