Siddaramaiah slams Yediyurappa's allegations of Congress twisting his statement

Shivamogga: Congress leader Siddaramaiah on Tuesday slammed the allegations levelled at him by Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa that Congress had 'twisted' his statement in a viral video.

Speaking to media persons, Siddaramaiah said, "Were we present in the core committee meeting of the BJP? Were any of our leaders present in their meeting? This was a core committee meeting for selecting their candidates for the upcoming polls."

Speaking to media persons about a videotape of him pertaining to resignations of these MLAs and the fall of Congress-JDS government, Yediyurappa in a meeting, said that Congress party had twisted his statement and he said: "We don't have anything to do with the 17 disqualified MLAs."

In the video that has surfaced, Yediyurappa purportedly says that the decision of the 17 JD-S and Congress MLAs to resign, which led to the fall of the HD Kumaraswamy-led government in July, was taken by the central leadership of the BJP and that the party workers should honour the "sacrifice" of the rebel MLAs.

"Here, an elected government has been pulled down. Is it not so? When those 17 MLAs defected and gave their resignation, the govt fell," Siddaramaiah added.

The Congress leader further voiced his confidence that Congress party will be winning '12-13' seats out the 15 up for grabs in the upcoming assembly polls.

Earlier, the bypolls in Karnataka were scheduled to be held on October 21 in 15 constituencies that were vacated by rebel MLAs of Congress and JD (S).

However, the election date was later shifted to December 5 by the Election Commission (EC). Counting of votes will take place on December 9.