Congress knows nothing about coalition dharma: Kumarswamy

Taking a swipe at Karnataka Leader of Opposition Siddaramaiah’s recent remarks, former Karnataka Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy said on Thursday that Congress is not a party worthy of an alliance as it has scant respect for coalition dharma.

Taking to Twitter, Kumaraswamy said that those who had come to former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda’s house to form an alliance in 2018 should not talk about joining hands during elections.

“At least as far as I remember, JD(S) has not gone to anybody’s house with its palms open asking for an alliance prior to elections or otherwise. It is always others who have come to our house asking for our help and I proudly assert that we did help them within our limits,” he said without naming Siddaramaiah, who had been a vocal opponent of Congress having an alliance with the JD(S) since the beginning.

It may be recalled that Siddaramaiah had on Wednesday openly opposed the idea of joining hands with the JD(S) ahead of the by-elections to two Assembly seats on November 3.

Kumarswamy had been cut-up with Siddaramaiah ever since the coalition government headed by him lost majority on the floor of the House last year, with as many as 17 legislators from both parties deciding to resign and cross over to the BJP.

Of these 17 legislators, belonging both to the JD(S) and the Congress, more than dozen were reportedly close aides of Siddaramaiah.