Siddaramaiah joins Congress

Siddaramaiah asks Karnataka CM to resign and face the CBI on the graft charges raised against him.

The political fortunes of Karnataka's ruling Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) appeared uncertain with its former deputy chief minister Siddaramaiha on Saturday formally joining the Congress and promising to get more legislators to switch loyalties.

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Siddaramaiah, who met Congress president Sonia Gandhi earlier, asked Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy to resign and face a Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on the graft charges raised against him.

"I am joining the Congress party to strengthen the hands of Sonia Gandhi and the party-led government at the centre," announced Siddaramaiah at a specially called press conference at the Congress headquarters at 24 Akbar Road.

"I am joining alone today. There are more JD-S members, who wanted to join along with me. They will join Congress party officially at a public rally, which will be held last week of August," he said.

Senior Congress leader AK Antony, Karnataka state Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge and former chief minister Dharam Singh also accompanied Siddaramaiah.

The entry of the 58 year old leader, who hails from the Kuruba community, is expected to give an edge to the Congress, which at one time appeared to be losing its support base in the backward community.

"Siddaramaiah is known as a just leader, who stood for secularism. His joining Congress will make the secular forces in the state stronger," said Antony, who is the Karnataka in-charge of the party.

Siddaramaiah's exit from the ruling party and the entry into the Congress is expected to keep the state's coalition as wobbly as ever.

He asked Kumaraswamy, who has been alleged of taking bribes from the illegal miners in Bellary, to quit and face a CBI probe.

Siddaramaiah said he has always worked for "uplift of the poor, equal opportunity to all and strengthening secularism in the state" and so could not extend any support to JD-S leader and former prime minister HD Deve Gowda, whom he accused of joining hands with "fundamentalists".

"This government will not last its term. It will collapse," he said adding: "We will not do anything to pull it down. It will collapse on its own."

The political situation in Karnataka has been messy since Kumaraswamy took over the top post in February. Kumaraswamy had broken away from the Congress-led coalition to join hands with the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to form the government five months ago.

However, Janardhan Reddy, a BJP legislator, accused the chief minister and the forest minister of taking bribes from illegal miners in Bellary. But he clarified later that it was not Kumaraswamy who was collecting bribes, but some people doing so in his name.

The troubles for the chief minister do not seem to be over as media reports alleged Maoist-links to the ruling party legislators.

Siddaramaiah, who had floated All India Progressive Janata Dal (AIPJD) at the state level to contest the local bodies elections in December, incurred Deve Gowda's wrath for organising a series of rallies of backward communities and minorities with Congress' support.

Deve Gowda had asked then chief minister N Dharam Singh to drop Siddaramaiah from the cabinet in August 2005.