Siddaramaiah's 75th birthday bash an attempt to 'finish off' Shivakumar politically: Nalin Kumar

Bengaluru: Taking a dig at the 75th birthday bash planned for former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Karnataka BJP President Nalin Kumar Kateel on Thursday said it is being organised to “finish off” state Congress chief D K Shivakumar politically, and the saffron party has nothing to fear from it.

Noting that the event is aimed at sending out a message to Congress high command and to put pressure on them to name him as the CM candidate for 2023 assembly polls, poking fun at the grand old party he said, the BJP is ready to support Siddaramaiah to gather more people for the programme, if he wants.

“We are very happy, let Siddaramanna (Siddaramaiah) gather another four to five lakh people, if he wants we (BJP) will cooperate. We are not jealous, but Shivakumar has not slept for a couple of days. Siddaramotsava is not being organised against the BJP, it is against Shivakumar,” Kateel said in response to a question.

Speaking to reporters here, he said, the bash is being organised for Siddaramaiah to maintain his existence in the Congress, show his strength to the high command, and it is a technique to put pressure on the party leadership to declare him as the next Chief Minister.

“It is an attempt to put Congress high command in a fix through a pressure tactic and to finish off (politically) Shivakumar. This is Siddaramaiah’s tactic,” he added.

Both Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar have been nursing chief ministerial ambitions and are also working towards consolidating their clout within the state Congress, ahead of the assembly polls in Karnataka next year.

There have been several instances of open display of one-upmanship between two leaders in the past.

Further accusing Siddaramaiah of having tried to politically finish off JD(S), also its chief and former PM H D Deve Gowda in the past, Kateel said, “after joining Congress and gaining power, he kept all the true Congress people outside. To ensure he becomes CM, he kept Dalit CM candidate Mallikarjun Kharge out of the race and defeated G Parameshwara.”

“Now this tactic is to finish off Shivakumar, so we are not afraid, Shivakumar is afraid, it has spoiled the sleep of Shivakumar and Congress people. We will instead support him (Siddaramaiah) to gather more people,” he added.

Siddaramaiah’s supporters and well-wishers, including several senior Congress leaders and former ministers, have planned a massive convention at Davangere on August 3, which is also being seen as a show of strength by the former CM’s camp as he turns 75.

Also, ‘Siddaramotsava’ is also planned to be organised in every district and assembly constituency, till September 3, aimed at projecting Siddaramaiah and his contributions, which is being seen as an attempt to send a message to both the high command and detractors within the party, ahead of polls, while consolidating his ‘AHINDA’ vote base.

AHINDA is a Kannada acronym that stands for ‘Alpasankhyataru’ (minorities), ‘Hindulidavaru’ (Backward Classes) and ‘Dalitaru’ (Dalits).

Siddaramaiah, who was earlier Chief Minister from 2013-18, had recently said Congress leader Rahul Gandhi has agreed to attend the big bash.