BSY slams ‘power-hungry’ father-son duo, Cong

Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly B S Yeddyurappa on Friday tore into the Congress-JD(S) alliance, severely mocking the Congress for having placed itself in the hands of “a power-hungry father-son duo” of the JD(S).

The BJP state president spoke for nearly 40 minutes in a speech that was fraught with sarcasm, scorn, contempt and some poetry mainly directed towards Chief Minister
H D Kumaraswamy and his father, JD(S) chief H D Deve Gowda. Yeddyurappa went back to 2006 when the BJP had joined hands with the JD(S), an arrangement in which Kumaraswamy would be chief minister for 20 months and was to hand over power to Yeddyurappa for another 20 months. “I must apologise to people of Karnataka for having allied with Kumaraswamy, which was the biggest mistake of my life. You cheated me just like how you cheated Dharam Singh, who died with that pain in his heart.”

Throughout his speech, Yeddyurappa drew the attention of Congress leaders Siddaramaiah, R V Deshpande, H K Patil and D K Shivakumar. For instance, he said at one point: “What I don’t understand Deshpande and Siddaramaiah is, how can you kiss a party that is out to destroy yours? What ideology is this? Didn’t Congress think about morality and its own future? You will realise your mistake in the coming days.”

Yeddyurappa also warned Shivakumar. “You will repent tomorrow. You’ve done the big mistake of protecting everybody to make a cheater the chief minister. You are the villain who took leadership in this plot.”

When Shivakumar objected to being called a villain, Yeddyurappa offered to take it back thus: “Shivakumar, how can I call you a villain when you dream of becoming chief minister? But are you nursing your dream in the Congress? In just a few months, if the father-son duo doesn’t make sure the Congress is erased, don’t call me Yeddyurappa.”

Yeddyurappa admitted that he had contacted legislators in the Congress-JD(S) camp. “It’s true I requested them. I met some of them in my house. Even now, I request Shivakumar, but it’s not my problem if he wants to drown in Kumaraswamy’s sinking ship.”

The BJP will not attack the Congress leaders in public anymore, Yeddyurappa said. “Our fight is against the corrupt, power-hungry father-son duo,” he said, adding that Duryodhana was Kumaraswamy’s God. “Destruction was Duryodhana’s resolve. Similarly, a destructive Kumaraswamy speaks of development.”

Yeddyurappa ridiculed Kumaraswamy’s claim of being a child of circumstance. “Let this government do well and let wisdom dawn on Congress. Let nobody suffer, because everybody knows this child of circumstance changes colours.”