JOIN USIn a stinging rebuke to the Congress-JD(S) coalition, Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly B S Yeddyurappa said on Tuesday that the state had two chief ministers, Siddaramaiah and H D Kumaraswamy.
“People are confused as to who the chief minister is, Siddaramaiah or Kumaraswamy. One remote control is in Delhi (Congress high command), while the other remote control is in Padmanabhanagar (JDS supremo H D Deve Gowda’s house),” Yeddyurappa said during his remarks on the Governor’s address to the joint session of the legislature. “Siddaramaiah says there’s no need for a new budget. People are tired of this talk and they are cursing this government.”
Yeddyurappa said the Governor’s address to the joint session of the legislature was “directionless and lacked vision.”
After the budget session concludes on July 12, Yeddyurappa said, all 104 BJP MLAs would take the JD(S) manifesto to the people and point out promises that Kumaraswamy failed to keep.
“If it wasn’t for the tall promises you made, the JD(S) would have got only 25 seats,” Yeddyurappa said. “Let me see how you waive farm loans worth Rs 53,000 crore, provide monthly pension of
Rs 6,000 to senior citizens, give Rs 6,000 for six months to pregnant women among other initiatives.”
He also demanded that Kumaraswamy come out with a White Paper on the state’s finances before tabling the budget. “The government’s loans are at Rs 2.38 lakh crore and I have credible information that irrigation, public works and other key departments have Rs 10,000-crore pending bills. Siddaramaiah laid foundation stones for projects worth Rs 6,000 crore. Then there’s the Sixth Pay Commission recommendations that will cost Rs 10,800 crore,” Yeddyurappa said.
Mocking Kumaraswamy’s earlier claim that he was “a child of circumstance,” Yeddyurappa said, “Such a child won’t have legitimate parentage. It won’t live long. Calling yourself a child of circumstance is the reflection of the guilt in your conscience.”
In the Council, Ayanur Manjunath (BJP) said Siddaramaiah, who was earlier in the driver’s seat, was now occupying the conductor’s seat.
“The driver moves the bus only when signalled by the conductor that all passengers have either boarded or alighted from the bus. Now, Kumaraswamy is in the driver’s seat and Siddaramaiah is in the conductor’s seat. But Siddaramaiah hasn’t given the signal. Hence, the BJP is stressing the fact that the government hasn’t taken off,” he said.
When JD(S) MLC T A Sharavana said that the coalition government was not a bus but a ‘double engine’ train, Manjunath said, “That’s true. Kumaraswamy is now with the Congress. But when one of the engines fails, he may switch sides to the BJP. He has already met Prime Minister Narendra Modi twice,” he added.