‘I will become CM if you vote for Congress’, Siddaramaiah declares in Mandya meet

“If you want me to become CM again, bring back the Congress Party to power next year. Once I become the CM, I will distribute 10 kg rice per person free of cost every month under the ‘Anna Bhagya’ scheme”

Shyam Sundar Vattam | NT

Bengaluru: Leader of the Opposition in the State Legislative Assembly Siddaramaiah has openly declared that he can become CM again only if people vote for the Congress Party. His statement comes in the wake of reports of the open war between KPCC President D.K.Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah over the CM post.

Enthused by the heaps of praise from his supporters and former legislators and ministers at a function in Mandya on Tuesday, Siddaramaiah said:  “If you want me to become CM again, bring back the Congress Party to power next year. Once I become the CM, I will distribute 10 kg rice per person free of cost every month under the ‘Anna Bhagya’ scheme”.  

As usual, Siddaramaiah was surrounded by his die-hard supporters like N.Cheluvarayanswamy, H.M.Revanna and Byrati Suresh who described him as the savior of the Congress Party in Karnataka. Already, a section of the Congress Party is unhappy with the war of words between the Kuruba(Siddaramaiah) and Vokkaliga (DK Shivakumar) leaders over the CM gaddi.

This has become a big worry for the Congress high command with two power centres in the State unit. Being aware of this, former AICC President Rahul Gandhi tried his best to resolve the matter saying that the high command will decide on the next CM once the party gets the required number of seats to form the government on its own without anybody’s support.

But, both Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah are not in a mood to listen to anybody. Leaders of other castes are watching and may put pressure on the high command at an opportune time to make any other senior leader the next CM other than Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar, added sources.