Kumaraswamy unhappy over current state of politics, wants to "step back"
Bengaluru, Aug 3: Over a week after his coalition government collapsed, former Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy 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 JDS leader said it was not good for people as it was dominated by hatred and caste.
"Today's politics is not for good people. Todays 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'm 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 K R 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 also abstained during the confidence vote.
Following this 17 legislators, 14 from the Congress and three from JD(S) were disqualified by the then Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar. The MLAs were subsequently expelled from their respective parties.
Kumaraswamy during the trust vote too had said his entry into politics and becoming CM was accidental as he was offered the chief ministership by the Congress at a time when he was mulling staying away from politics after the May 2018 assembly polls in which his party ended up 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 single largest party BJPs B S Yediyurappa was sworn in as Chief Minister on July 26 and he subsequently proved the majority in the assembly on July 29.
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In PM’s absence, Bengal Guv launches national highway projects worth Rs 3,200 cr
Kolkata (PTI): West Bengal Governor CV Ananda Bose on Saturday unveiled national highway projects worth Rs 3,200 crore in West Bengal with an aim to boost economic activities and tourism in the state.
Bose officially launched the projects from Netaji Park in Taherpur area of Nadia district instead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who was initially supposed to unveil the development projects from the ground, but whose helicopter failed to land in the area on account of insufficient visibility due to dense fog over the region.
Modi was forced to return to the Kolkata airport from where he later addressed the crowd in a virtual audio mode.
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Bose inaugurated the 66.7 km-long four-laning of the Barajaguli-Krishnanagar section of NH-34 in Nadia district, while he laid the foundation stone for the four-laning of the Barasat-Barajaguli stretch of the highway in the adjacent district of North 24 Parganas.
“It has remained our constant endeavour to ensure modern connectivity to those far-flung areas of Bengal which have suffered on account of backwardness,” the Prime Minister said while addressing the crowd.
Modi expressed regret for not being able to remain on the dais in person on account of inclement weather.
The projects will serve as a vital connecting link between Kolkata and Siliguri and help reduce travel time by approximately 2 hours, ensuring faster and smoother movement of vehicles and improving connectivity between the state's capital and other districts of West Bengal as well as with neighbouring countries, Modi said.
“The projects will also boost the economic growth in the region and will provide impetus to the growth of tourism across the region,” he added.
