HDK embracing those who toppled his govt, says Shivakumar

Maqsood Maniyar | NT

Bengaluru: There was no love lost between Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar and JD(S) legislature party leader HD Kumaraswamy as the former on Friday mocked his rival for “embracing those who toppled his government”.

The Karnataka Congress chief was referring to the fact that the BJP had engineered defections of 17 MLAs from both the Grand Old Party and JD(S) when they were in a coalition in the infamous Operation Kamala back in 2019.

Moreover, JD(S) has made it official that they are in talks with the saffron party for a pre-poll alliance for next year’s Lok Sabha elections.

“Kumaraswamy has been reduced to entertaining and even embracing the people who toppled his government, going so far as to protest against the sitting government alongside them,” Shivakumar said, adding that his intention was not to tell JD(S) how to run their party.

However, the regional outfit’s leaders were very displeased with the alliance, he claimed.

“I asked many JD(S) leaders and workers about the alliance. To this, they replied that they aren’t able to explain to their workers as to why Kumaraswamy is cozying up to people who toppled our government,” he added.

There has been bad blood between the Vokkaliga bigwigs because of Shivakumar’s alleged attempts to poach at least 13 of the 19 JD(S) MLAs so as to enable them to bypass the anti-defection law and retain the party symbol.