H D Kumaraswamy.
Credit: DH File Photo
JD(S) state president H D Kumaraswamy, on Sunday, took a dig at Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his deputy D K Shivakumar for taking part in the Congress’ election campaign in Telangana.
The five guarantees implemented by the party had failed miserably in Karnataka. But the Congress was trying to hard sell it as the Karnataka model of governance in the five states where elections were underway, he said.
“In reality, ‘temporary’ chief minister (Siddaramaiah) and ‘duplicate’ chief minister (Shivakumar) are in a race along with ministers to collect more money by fleecing the state’s voters, to fund the party’s poll expenses in five states,” Kumaraswamy told a press conference here.
He said the government had promised free power under ‘Gruha Jyothi’ scheme.
But the ministers are conducting meetings using mobile flashlights due to a power shortage.
“The Congress has truly implemented five guarantees namely: corruption,
commission, price rise, increase in property guidance value by 50%, power cuts, increasing burden of borrowings, rising cases of farmer suicides and lack of development,” the former chief minister said.
Kumaraswamy said the state’s borrowings had seen a sharp increase in Siddaramaiah’s first tenure, compared to the 1999-2013 period. "It is he who pushed the state into a debt trap,” he charged.
Cut-off box - Let him talk to his constituents: Shivakumar Reacting to Kumaraswamy’s allegations Shivakumar said if the former wants to know the impact of the guarantees he must speak to voters of his own constituency (Channapatna). “Kumaraswamy would not have made such statements if he was aware of the pain undergone by the poor. We know that people are happy with the implementation of the guarantees. Kumaraswamy is not aware of the impact of these guarantees as he is neither a beneficiary nor has he ever thought about implementing such guarantees” he said. “There may be a delay in about 5% of the beneficiaries of ‘Gruha Lakshmi’ scheme not receiving Rs 2000 due to technical issues. The government is working hard to resolve them” Shivakumar added.