Siddaramaiah

Bidar: "I have only two aims in life. To destroy (H.D.) Deve Gowda's party and to bring back the Congress to power in the State," former Deputy Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said here on Thursday.

He was addressing party workers. He invited them to the September 3 rally in Bangalore, where the All-India Progressive Janata Dal (AIPJD) is slated to merge with the Congress.

`BCs cheated'

"Mr. Deve Gowda has not only cheated me, but also the backward classes. In the campaign for the 2004 Assembly campaign, he went around saying he would make me Chief Minister. Backward class voters believed him and elected 53 MLAs. However, Mr. Deve Gowda forgot the promise. He neither helped me nor any other party worker from the backward classes to become Chief Minister.

That is because he wanted to make his son Chief Minister.

Power hungry

He was so desperate to see his son take oath as Chief Minster that he was willing to join hands with the BJP even before we negotiated with the Congress to form a coalition after the 2004 polls," the former Deputy Chief Minister said.

He described Mr. Deve Gowda's consent to a coalition with the Congress as a "temporary arrangement" to prepare the ground for making his son H.D. Kumaraswamy the Chief Minister.

"I have never been happy with Mr. Deve Gowda's autocratic ways. The environment in the JD (S) has never been pleasant.

However, I continued to work with him for 25 years as I was committed to Jayaprakash Narayan and Lohia's philosophy.

Mr. Deve Gowda used this to his advantage and succeeded in placing his sons in key positions," Mr. Siddaramaiah charged.

He accused Mr. Kumaraswamy of being the most corrupt politician in the State.

Ridiculed

He ridiculed Mr. Deve Gowda's call for a "do or die" struggle as an attempt to protect his sons.

He said Congress president Sonia Gandhi would address the rally in Bangalore.

All the leaders and workers of the AIPJD would join the Congress, he added.

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