Keshava Sudhakar, who was among the lawmakers whose resignations led to the Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) government’s fall in Karnataka in 2019, on Wednesday blamed former chief minister Siddaramaiah for forcing them to quit.
In a series of tweets, Sudhakar questioned can Siddaramaiah deny he had no implicit or explicit role in prompting 14 Congress lawmakers to resign. The resignations paved the way for the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)’s return to power in Karnataka.
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The tweets came as Siddaramaiah appeared to be ahead of his rival and state Congress chief DK Shivakumar in the race for Karnataka’s top elected post days after the Congress swept back to power in the southern state.
Sudhakar, who went on to become a minister in the previous BJP government, tweeted Siddaramaiah would express his helplessness that he has no say in JD(S)-Congress government and that works even in his constituency and district were stalled whenever lawmakers went to him with their concerns as the coalition’s coordination head.
He said Siddaramaiah would ask lawmakers to wait till the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and say come what may he would not allow the then HD Kumaraswamy-led coalition government to continue even for a single day after that.
“Ultimately some of us had to inevitably quit Congress and join [the] BJP to protect karyakartas [workers] and supporters in our constituencies,” said Sudhakar, who joined the BJP along with 16 other Congress and JD(S) detectors in 2019.
There was no immediate response from the Congress.
