Siddaramaiah challenges BJP to dissolve assembly, face polls

The Leader of the Opposition in the state assembly maintained that the CM's chair was shaky

Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Siddaramaiah on Thursday dared the BJP to dissolve the Assembly and face elections.

Speaking to reporters, Siddaramaiah claimed that the Congress would win a majority and return to power “if elections are held tomorrow” while dismissing Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa’s belief that the people of Karnataka were with the BJP.

He was reacting to Yediyurappa’s claiming that BJP-backed candidates had emerged victorious by winning a majority of the seats in the gram panchayat elections.

“The BJP doesn’t have the people’s support. All that they have is money that they’ve looted,” Siddaramaiah said. “Let the BJP dissolve the Assembly and face elections. If there’s an election tomorrow, the Congress will win a majority and come back to power,” he said.

Yediyurappa, at a news conference, said BJP-backed candidates had won in 3,800-gram panchayats out of the 5,728 that went to polls.

“Yediyurappa is daydreaming,” Siddaramaiah said, on the BJP’s claim that the gram panchayat results were a precursor to the next Assembly elections. “In many places, the BJP didn’t even have candidates for the gram panchayat polls. They took our candidates,” he said.

Although gram panchayat polls are fought without any party symbols, most candidates are affiliated with either one of the three major parties.

JD(S) Legislature Party Leader H D Kumaraswamy said his party had achieved “notable” success in the gram panchayat polls despite the “money and power” of the national parties.