BENGALURU: On Saturday, Karnataka former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah clarified that he was expelled from that party by former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda. "They (BJP) ask why Siddaramaiah quit JD(S) and joined Congress. I did not quit JD(S)...I was expelled. You must know the truth...I was expelled from the JD(S) by Mr. Deve Gowda for my AHINDA activities. Now you know, I believe," Siddaramaiah told reporters at Kalaburagi.

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AHINDA stands for minorities, backward castes, and Dalits in Kannada. The senior Congress leader was canvassing for party candidate Subhash Rathod, contesting the bypoll from Chincholi assembly constituency. The Chincholi constituency fell vacant after disgruntled Congress assembly lawmaker Umesh Jadhav resigned from the assembly to join the Saffron Party and contested the Lok Sabha polls from Gulbarga where he had a direct fight with Congress stalwart Mallikarjun Kharge.

The Bhartiya Janta Party (BJP) gave the ticket to Mr. Jadhav's son Avinash Jadhav to contest from Chincholi Assembly constituency, where the election is due on May 19. Two days ago, Mr. Siddaramaiah, while addressing a public meeting, attacked Mr. Jadhav, saying a "traitor" alone would ditch the party, which is like a mother. In retaliation, BJP lawmaker and former deputy chief minister R Ashok had sought to know why Siddaramaiah quit the JD(S) and joined the Congress.

To this, Ex-Chief Minister said Mr. Ashok knew nothing as there were lots of dissimilarities between Umesh Jadhav quitting the Congress and joining the BJP and him leaving the JD(S) and joining the grand old party.

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