Siddaramaiah must be CM again: Patil

The demand for making coordination committee chairman Siddaramaiah the chief minister again is growing louder in the state Congress.

Home Minister M B Patil on Tuesday said he too wants to see Siddaramaiah as the chief minister again and strongly defended those who had been making similar demands.

“What’s wrong in it (demand that he should be CM)? I also want him to be CM again. He had done good work for people in the past. He is capable of becoming CM again,” he told reporters.

Chikkaballapur MLA Dr K Sudhakar had on Monday said Siddaramaiah should again become chief minister in the interest of the party. The demand for making Siddaramaiah chief minister comes amid speculation in political circles of a possible change of guard in the JD(S)-Congress coalition government after May 23.

He, however, said that H D Kumaraswamy will remain the chief minister for the next four years. “There was no discussion on the change of guard. If such a proposal comes up, then Rahul Gandhi (Congress president) and Deve Gowda (JD-S president) will sit and discuss,” he stated.

‘I also want to be CM’

The minister also said he too wants to be the CM. “I also have the desire to be CM. I am also an aspirant. But I want Siddaramaiah to be CM again. If he wants to become CM, I am ready to wait,” Patil, who has been projecting himself as the Lingayat face of the Congress, said.