No plan to leave Congress: Siddaramaiah

Mangalore, May 23: Spiking rumours, former Deputy Chief Minister Siddaramaiah today clarified that he had never demanded any position in the party while joining the Congress and there was no question of him quitting the party. Replying queries at the press conference here, the Congress leader who is in the city to campaign for Ullal assembly bypoll said, "I will remain in the Congress and make all efforts to strengthen the party. None of my followers are unhappy to be in the Congress either."

Criticising the Janata Dal (S), he said it had fielded a candidate in Ullal in a bid to defeat the secular Congress candidate. It was the ploy of JD (S) supremo H D Deve Gowda who had intentionally fielded a minority candidate to divide Congress votes to indirectly help the BJP. He had employed the same strategy in the Chamundeshwari by-election where he contested and won, he said.

He said that the people were deeply frustrated with the communal politics on one side and "Father-Son family politics" on the other, being played by Mr Gowda.

UNI