Siddaramaiah forced Congress MLAs to resign in 2019: BJP’s K Sudhakar

Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar, the main claimaints to the CM post, have been holding meetings with top Congress leaders, including Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi

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.

BJP MLA K Sudhakar (Twitter/@mla_sudhakar)

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.

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.

“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.