Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Aug 23: Former Prime Minister and JD(S) national president, H D Deve Gowda, has directly charged Siddaramaiah with being responsible for the rooting out of the fledgling coalition government which failed to totally recover from its teething troubles.

He was speaking at a meeting of party workers and leaders organized at J P Bhavan here on Thursday August 22. "Everyone is aware how the government crashed. By the way, as the leaders who went to Mumbai in the company of BJP leaders have been claiming that they were asked to go by Siddaramaiah, we are clear about what would have happened," he stated.

Gowda had, on Wednesday, indirectly blamed the Congress for the collapse of the short-lived Congress - JD(S) government in the state. On Thursday, he named Siddaramaiah as the main culprit. "Siddaramaiah and Kumaraswamy had always had some kind of friction going on between them since long. Siddaramaiah was not in favour of forming the coalition government. He gave his consent under pressure. All of you know what happened next," he said. 

Deve Gowda claimed that he knows the ins and outs of techniques used to defeat him in Tumakuru constituency and Nikhil in Mandya. He stated that even Congress leaders have admitted to have worked against the JD(S) in these constituencies. He therefore held the Congress responsible for the formation of BJP government in the state.

It may be recalled that in a recent interview to a newspaper, Deve Gowda had also guessed that Siddaramaiah would also have been angry at the JD(S) as he was defeated at the hands of JD(S) candidate in last year's assembly election from Chamundeshwari constituency, Mysuru.

Deve Gowda said that Siddaramaiah and Yediyurappa have worked together in the past and guessed that Siddaramaiah would have nursed the ambition of working as leader of the opposition in government run by Yediyurappa.