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Lok Sabha elections 2019: Amid ‘friendly’ jibes, Siddaramaiah says Revanna can be CM
Siddaramaiah’s jibe came a day after Kumaraswamy, while campaigning for the bypoll to Chincholi assembly seat, said injustice had been meted out to Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge as he had so far not been made CM.
The on-and-off tussle between Karnataka coalition partners Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) took a personal turn on Thursday, after former chief minister Siddaramaiah suggested that there were many people in the alliance who were capable of becoming CM, including incumbent HD Kumaraswamy’s brother, HD Revanna.
Siddaramaiah’s latest jibe came a day after Kumaraswamy, while campaigning for the bypoll to Chincholi assembly seat in Kalaburagi district, said injustice had been meted out to Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge as he had so far not been made CM. In a tweet, Siddaramaiah, who is the chairman of the coordination committee of the coalition, said: “HD Kumaraswamy is right, Mallikarjun Kharge is not just capable of becoming chief minister but is also fit to hold much higher positions. In the coalition, there are many suitable candidates, including HD Revanna. Everything will fall in place when the time is right.”
Revanna, the state’s public works minister, and Kumaraswamy share an uneasy relationship and feuds have broken out among members of the HD Deve Gowda family in the past. While Kumaraswamy is the household’s face for the top post in the state, Revanna is Deve Gowda’s heir in his home district of Hassan, from where he contests.
This unease was evident in last year’s assembly elections, when the JD(S) decided to field only Kumaraswamy and Revanna, even though the latter wanted to field his son in the polls and the former his wife.
