The elections are over, Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy and Deputy CM Dr G Parameshwara have taken centre stage in state politics, leaving former CM Siddaramaiah on the side-lines.
Siddaramaiah, who decided to withdraw from the workings of the government, went to Dharmastala’s Manjunatheshwara Yoga and Nature Cure Hospital, where he is said to be recuperating after the ordeal of spearheading the election campaign for the Congress party.
However, the former CM is back in the news after a video clip of his meeting with several of his supporters at the yoga centre went viral. In the video, Siddaramaiah is seen expressing his dissatisfaction over the new government choosing to table a new budget as opposed to the one which was tabled by the Congress government before the state went to polls.
In the video, Siddaramaiah is seen talking to Congress MLAs ST Somashekhar, Byrathi Basavaraj, Muniratna and a few others. The video was first telecast by TV9 Kannada.
Here are some excerpts from the video:
Siddaramaiah: It looks like the new budget will be tabled and they will go to Rahul Gandhi and get the green signal. Parameshwara too says it is natural for a new government to table the budget.
Congress leader: As you said, they could have tabled a supplementary budget.
Siddaramaiah: If a single party had come to power, then they can table a new budget. But he (Kumaraswamy) became CM with our support. The Congress has already tabled the last budget. Common sense has to be applied. If the government continues next year, they could have passed a new budget next year. Even before the Common Minimum Programme (CMP) is set, the budget preparation has started.
Congress leader: When you said no to the new budget, they should not table the new budget.
Supporter: MB Patil had called a meeting. We didn’t go. Sudhakar wanted to hold a meeting at Shangrila Hotel.
Siddaramaiah: It seems he (Deve Gowda) wants to contest from Mandya and give his (present) seat to his grandson.
Siddaramaiah: They could have helped farmers in other ways. We have a project where a dry land farmer gets Rs 10,000. They could have extended it. It would have helped many.
Supporter: Sir, there are examples where somebody commits suicide and it is called farmer suicide. If we speak, then there would be a protest against us by farmer organisations.
Siddaramaiah: I too come from a village. In our village nobody has died after taking a loan.
However, sources in the Congress said that the CMP, set up by the JD(S)-Congress combine, is going to discuss whether Siddaramaiah’s proposed Raita Belaku programme, which proposes financial aid to farmers, must be implemented.
Siddaramaiah’s Raita Belaku programme proposes offering Rs 10,000 per acre to farmers with barren lands, with the money being directly credited to beneficiaries’ bank accounts. The project cost was estimated at Rs 3,500 crore with 70 lakh farmers benefitting every year.
The committee is expected to discuss whether to implement this programme instead of CM Kumaraswamy’s farm loan waiver.
The outstanding amount of farm loans since 2009 amounts to Rs 1.21 lakh crore and CM Kumaraswamy had promised to waive off Rs 53,000 crore of the loans.
The Chief Minister is scheduled to meet bank officials on Monday to discuss the scheme for loan waiver. He has also invited Telangana officials to Bengaluru to discuss the merits of the Rythu Bandhu scheme as the proposal was modelled on the scheme introduced by the Telangana government.