Shivakumar hits back at HDK over Tihar jibe

Maqsood Maniyar | NT

Ramanagara/Bengaluru: Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar and rival and JD(S) legislature party leader HD Kumaraswamy have got into yet another spat with the latter foreseeing the Karnataka Congress chief ending up in Tihar Jail in New Delhi.

“Shivakumar has gone to Tihar Jail in the past. It won’t be surprising if he goes back there forever,” Kumaraswamy said.

Shivakumar has a disproportionate assets cases against him and is being investigated by both Enforcement Directorate (ED) and Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).

The Karnataka Congress chief and his party insist that the cases are politically motivated.

Reacting to this, Shivakumar said: “Kumaraswamy has disclosed what his plans are. He has told us what is possible for them to do. Now, out of nowhere, he remembers cases being registered against me, my brother, sister and my wife when he was the chief minister. He has told us what his future course of action would be. We’ll discuss this in the future,” he said to mediapersons on Monday.

DKS let govt fall: Kumaraswamy

Kumaraswamy on Monday repeated his accusation that the Congress bigwig allowed the JD(S)-Congress coalition government to fall in 2019. He was referring to the infamous Operation Kamala, which saw 17 MLAs, a mix of Congress and JD(S) lawmakers joining the BJP to topple the Kumaraswamy-led coalition.

“In public, he raised my hand before the people and told them that we were one. You probably saw it on TV. He did the same in Kanakapura and claimed we were together. We even believed it. I said the same thing yesterday. He told us we were a coalition and then left us in the middle of the road. In public, he claimed to our people that they did everything they could to save the government. Then they paid people to vote for them and came to power,” Kumaraswamy said.

“People were of the opinion that this poor guy (Shivakumar) did his best to protect the government. Why does Kumaranna hate him? This is how he started to spoil the mind of our people. That State government fell because of that man,” he added.

By “our people”, he was most likely referring to the Vokkaliga community to which both Kumaraswamy and Shivakumar belong. The Karnataka Congress chief is emerging as the new Vokkaliga mass leader with many community members opting to vote for the Grand Old Party to make Shivakumar the CM in the May Assembly polls.

The JD(S) is wary of this since they depend heavily on the Vokkaliga vote. (Box) Talks with Shah behind statement: Suresh Shivakumar’s brother and Bengaluru Rural MP DK Suresh implied that Kumaraswamy was conniving with Union Home Minister Amit Shah and threatening Shivakumar with cases.

“He can't do anything else apart from talking about DK Shivakumar. Otherwise, he won’t be able to sleep soundly. It mostly looks like he discussed the matter with Amit Shah and must have put in a request. We shall wait and see what happens,” he said.