aig speaking out of "thirst for power," says Siddaramaiah

: Rebuking senior MLA RoshanBaig for his outburst against the party leadership, includinghim, Congress Legislature Party leader and former ChiefMinister Siddaramaiah Wednesday said his act was out of "thirst for power".

"Roshan Baig I don't know...maybe because he did not become Minister and as he was not given ticket for MP (Lok Saba election- he has spoken like that)," Siddaramaiah said.

Speaking to reporters in Mysuru, he said, "Because of his thirst for power, such things happen, nothing can be done. The party will take care of it."

Hitting out at Congress leaders for the party's performance in the Lok Sabha polls as projected in the exit polls, Baig Tuesday held Siddaramaiah's "arrogance" and KPCC chief Dinesh Gundu Rao's "immaturity" responsible for the "flop show".

 

He had also called Venugopal, who is AICC General Secretary in-charge of Karnataka, a "buffoon."

Baig,who was also a Minister in the previousSiddaramaiah government, had also slammed the former ChiefMinister for "dividing" Hindu society by attempting togive separate religion tag to Lingayat community and "abusing"the Vokkaliga community during his tenure in the top post.

The attack by Baig,who was miffed over not beinginducted into the H D Kumaraswamy led coalition ministry, andbeing denied a ticket to contest the Lok Sabha polls from Bangalore Central, came after the exit polls predicted a rout for the Congress-JD(S) alliance in Karnataka and NDA's return to power at the Centre.

The KPCC has issued a show cause notice to Baig for his conduct.

Meanwhile, Congress' Bangalore Central candidateRizwan Arshad, in a letter to the AICC General Secretary, hasalleged that Baig worked against him and the party in the LokSabha elections.

Baig had a "tacit" understanding with BJP and RSS, he has alleged.

Responding to a question about repeated attacks on him by his bete noire and JD(S) state President A H Vishwanath, Siddaramaiah said he would take up the issue at the coalition coordination committee meeting.

"Vishwanath is not from our party, he is from JD(S).I will discuss about what Vishwanath has spoken in the coordination committee meeting. I will not talk about it publicly," he said.

Vishwanath, who was earlier in the Congress, on Tuesday hadwelcomed Baig's outburst against the party leadership, saying hisremarks were "true" and "a reality."

Last week, with the clamour growing within Congressfor Siddaramaiah to become CM once again, Vishwanath had hitout at the CLP leader, raising questions about his performanceas Chief Minister in the previous government, and had termed the demand as "chamchagiri" (sycophancy).

His statements had resulted in a public spat between the two, with Siddaramaiah hitting back and asking the JD(S) leadership to intervene.

On Saturday too, Vishwanath had raised questions about Siddaramaiah's performance as coordination committee chief andhit out at him for not inducting him and Rao to the committee.