Nobody can touch me at least till 2019 LS polls: K'taka CM HD Kumaraswamy

Bengaluru: While the coalition government is still in the process of finding its legs, chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy made a cryptic statement on Friday that he would continue to be chief minister at least till the coming parliamentary elections. He also asserted that no one could touch him for the next one year.

Mr Kumaraswamy, who was addressing a function organised by the Chartered Accountants’ Association here, said there were a lot of people who wanted the worst for his government, but none of  their wishful thinking would come true.

On the issue of farm loans, he denied that the government had backed out on the waiver as reported in a section of the media. “Deputy chief minister G. Parameshwar has never said that the Congress is against waiving farm loans. All he said was that the coalition government could not set deadlines. As the finance minister, I am telling you that the farm loans will be waived,” he emphasised, adding that there were a lot of other schemes too that his government would provide for other sections of people.

“Many ask me why I am doing everything only for farmers. But I will not allow the taxpayers’ money to go to  waste. It will reach all six crore people of the state,’’ he assured.

Recalling his earlier 20 month stint in power, Mr Kumaraswamy said  he had planned to build elevated roads on storm water drains at the time , but the following governments did not take the plan forward.

“Now I believe that Bengaluru needs an ORR on the lines of Hydera-bad,”  he added.