Karnataka Congress chief and Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara on Wednesday asserted that the coalition government with the Janata Dal (Secular) would complete its full five-year term, PTI reported. Parameshwara’s comments come a day after a video showed former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah doubting whether the coalition government would last five years.
In a video telecast on TV9 Kannada, Siddaramaiah is heard saying that the government will stay in power until the 2019 Lok Sabha elections and “we will have to see what happens after that”.
“As president [of state Congress], I am issuing this clarification that we have agreed to run this government for five years,” Parameshwara told reporters at Koppal, according to PTI. “What others are talking outside is irrelevant. Outsiders talk in different ways. For political reasons, they say that this government will run for only one year. Some say two years.”
Congress leader in Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, said that he would meet Siddaramaiah and ask him in what context he had made the comments. “I will ask him in what context he said so,” Kharge said in Delhi. “Or has it been presented in a distorted manner? Or is it a media creation to create animosity between people or whether he has really said so?”
Kharge added that the Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular) was forced to come together to keep the Bharatiya Janata Party away from power.
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