‘Safeguard your MLAs’, Karnataka CM Bommai tells Congress

BENGALURU: Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Saturday said in the history of the state, leader of the opposition in the Assembly, Siddaramaiah has the “credit” of taking the maximum loan during his five years’ ruling as the chief minister.

Reacting to the former chief minister’s charges that only 10 per cent of the work announced in the previous year’s budget had been implemented and the state’s borrowing has touched Rs 3 lakh crore, Bommai told reporters here on Saturday that details of the budget implementation will be furnished in the coming budget session.

On Karnataka Congress Manifesto Committee chairman G Parameshwar, unhappy about being sidelined, Bommai said it was an internal matter of the Congress party.

“… but Parameshwar is very intelligent and knows everything. If he has expressed unhappiness, they must understand it,” he said.

Commenting on Siddaramaiah’s statement that there was a pro-Congress wave across the state, he suggested the Congress leader to protect the MLAs of the region where he is touring.

Asked about Sri Ram Sena Chief Pramod Muthalik’s request to the BJP not to field its candidate in Karkala, Bommai said Energy Minister V. Sunil Kumar has been representing the constituency for the last three polls, and “this is his constituency”.

“Everyone has the right to appeal but as a national party, BJP will field its candidates in all the 224 Assembly constituencies,” the CM said.