Kumaraswamy a "political villain," more frustrated than BJP, says Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah
Mysuru (PTI): Dubbing JD(S) state president H D Kumaraswamy a "political villain," Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday claimed that he was "more frustrated" than the BJP.
He hit out at the former Chief Minister for his recent attacks directed towards him and his government.
"If there is anyone who is a political villain, it is him, it is Mr Kumaraswamy. He has targeted me for watching a cricket match. But when his government (Congress-JD(S) coalition government) was about to collapse, he was sitting in America for a week. What should we call him?" Siddaramaiah said, in response to a question on Kumaraswamy allegedly comparing the Chief Minister to villains in the epic Mahabharata.
Speaking to reporters here, he claimed that, during his entire one year and two months as Chief Minister, Kumaraswamy spent time in a luxury hotel in Bengaluru.
To a question that Kumaraswamy has accused him of destabilising his government leading to its collapse in July, 2019, Siddaramaiah pointed out that earlier, the JD(S) leader had on record, in the Assembly, blamed the BJP for his government's collapse.
"He had made this statement accusing the BJP for his government's collapse, during the trust vote in the Assembly, but now he is saying different things and is blaming me, did he mislead the House then" he said, adding Kumaraswamy is "more frustrated" than the BJP and hence was making such statements.
In the May elections this year to the 224-member Karnataka Assembly, the Congress bagged 135 seats, the BJP 66 and the JD(S) 19.
Last month, the JD (S) joined the BJP-led NDA; the two parties said they will have an alliance for the Lok Sabha polls next year.
Lashing out at Kumaraswamy for calling Siddaramaiah 'Mir Sadiq', Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar too, said the JD(S) leader had blamed the BJP for the collapse of his government and questioned as to how he has joined hands with the same party now.
Mir Sadiq, a minister during Tipu Sultan's rule, conspired with the British. His name is used when calling someone a traitor.
Pointing out as to how Siddaramaiah, the Congress party, its legislators and leadership stood by him during the then coalition government, Shivakumar, who is also the state Congress chief, accused Kumaraswamy of now "hugging" the same BJP which was responsible for its collapse and challenged him for a debate during the Assembly session in Belagavi and even for a media debate.
"...Who spoke what...let's bring things on record for future generations to know...earlier I had kept quiet abiding by a few (Vokkaliga) community leaders, but I have to speak now, as we too have self-esteem like you," he added.
Both Kumaraswamy and Shivakumar belong to the Vokkaliga community.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
