‘Misquoted’: Siddaramaiah does a U-turn after ‘full-term CM’ remark

A day after Siddaramaiah was quoted by the media as saying that he would head the Karnataka government for a full five-year term, the chief minister on Friday (November 3) accused the press of misquoting him.

“I say something and you report something else,” he chided the media. “I said we would go by whatever the high command decides. This is a high-command party,” he said.

The media posed the question to Siddaramaiah after his aide and Cooperation Minister Rajanna said at an event that he would want to see Home Minister G Parameshwara as the next chief minister if Siddaramaiah decided to step down.

Replying to a question over whether there would be three other deputy chief ministers as rumoured, he remarked on Thursday, “Who said? All this is decided by the high command. Congress is not a regional party, it’s a national party. Nothing can be decided without discussing with the high command. Neither me as the chief minister nor the MLAs can change the government. We have the high command; they will decide.”

Speculations rife

There have been a lot of rumours within the Karnataka party unit about the chief minister being changed ever since Siddaramaiah took charge earlier this year. Some of them have been making misleading statements in public, giving rise to more speculations.

Replying to media questions about confusing statements from Congress party members, Siddaramaiah asked on Thursday, “Who has made the confusing statement? If someone useless speaks, why do you give importance to it?”

When Congress formed the government in Karnataka in May, there was stiff competition between Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar for the chief minister’s post. The party finally convinced the latter to accept the deputy CM’s post.

High command tight-lipped

However, there have been speculations since then that a compromise had been reached, and Shivakumar would become the CM after two and a half years. However, there has been no official word from the party on this.

“Nobody knows what was discussed or decided in Delhi during government formation. The CM and the party president (Shivakumar) know. So, whatever we say will not be right,” Parameshwara reportedly said at the event.

Apart from Siddaramaiah himself, several state ministers, including Priyank Kharge, Zameer Ahmed Khan, and Santosh Lad, have avoided questions on the issue, saying it was up to the high command to take a decision on a Cabinet reshuffle.