'I became CM accidentally': Kumaraswamy hints at leaving politics

Bengaluru, Aug 04: Over a week after his coalition government collapsed, former Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy on Saturday said he wants to "step back" from politics and termed his entry into the field accidental.

Expressing unhappiness over the current state of politics, the Janata Dal (Secular) leader said it was not good for people as it was dominated by hatred and caste.

"Today's politics is not for good people. Today's politics is filled with infatuation towards caste, hate politics. The way certain feelings are instigated in people by a section, the way youth today are deflecting from their path... can I correct all these things? God will see," Kumaraswamy said.

Speaking to reporters at Hassan, he said, "Don't bring my family into this repeatedly. I am not here to stick on in politics. Looking at today's politics, I myself want to step back from politics. I have come into politics accidentally, I became chief minister accidentally."

Kumaraswamy also rejected reports that his son Nikhil Kumaraswamy was likely to be the JD(S) candidate from KR Pet, where by-election is necessitated following the disqualification of rebel party MLA Narayanagowda.

Nikhil had tasted defeat during the Lok Sabha polls in the party bastion of Mandya against independent candidate and actress Sumalatha Ambareesh, who was supported by the BJP.

Kumaraswamy resigned as chief minister on July 23 with the 14-month-old Congress-JD(S) coalition government being defeated in the floor test after a spate of resignations by alliance MLAs who abstained from voting.

Following this, the rebels, 14 from the Congress and three from the JD(S), were disqualified by the then Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar. The MLAs were subsequently expelled from their respective parties.

Kumaraswamy during the trust vote had also said his entry into politics and becoming the chief minister was accidental as he was offered the post by the Congress at a time when he was mulling staying away from politics after the May 2018 Assembly polls in which his party finished a distant third.

The Congress and JD(S) that had contested against each other in the Assembly polls joined hands to form the government as the election threw up a hung verdict and to keep BJP, the single largest party, out of power.

Following the collapse of the Kumaraswamy government on July 23, the BJP's BS Yediyurappa was sworn in as chief minister on July 26 and he subsequently proved the majority in the Assembly three days later.