Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (MS)
Bengaluru, Jul 24: "Colleagues, who were my partners in politics for decades, have stabbed me in the back. I will not call them disgruntled. I will say that they are happy and satisfied people. As you have stabbed me, time will come for you also to get stabbed in the back," said an agitated former minister D K Shivakumar, about the rebel MLAs of the Congress party, who have resigned and gone to Mumbai.
Shivakumar further said, "I have seen lots of games in politics. I will meet all these rebels in the battlefield of politics because I have helped them to grow in politics. I have also contributed to their development."
Speaking after partaking in the discussion before the trust vote, Shivakumar said, "The rebel MLAs were like our own family members. Now they have forsaken us. I feel that their political future has gone for a toss. BJP is trying to mislead them. They cannot become ministers at all. It pains me that these people will be meted out injustice by BJP."
"MLA Muniratna, during the dinner I organized for the MPs in Delhi said that let us go to BJP under your leadership. I know, how much pain I have taken for his victory in the by-poll. Now he has gone to the extent of advising me," said D K Shivakumar.
The former minister further expressed his anger by saying, "I have grown a lot in politics. I have seen a lot. I have fought with the cases slapped on me by the Income Tax department and Enforcement Directorate. I have the capacity to face and fight everything."
"The MLAs, who have gone to Mumbai cannot become ministers at any cost. They will become ineligible under the anti-defection law," added Shivakumar.
Shivakumar expressed his anguish on Basanagowda Patil Yatnal of BJP and said, "Basanagowda Patil had accused me of helping BJP to come back to power. When I was about to get verdict in my favour in the court, this statement of Basanagowda pained me a lot. I will file a defamation suit for Rs 2.04 crores on him."
"I, who was the minister for prisons, am ready to go to jail. I know the people who go to jail as to what they become when they come out from it. I do not get scared by these tactics. I am hearing talks of sending me to jail in the BJP circle. I could have kept the MLAs under my lock, if I wished. I could have locked even M T B Nagaraj also. But I did not do such dirty work," concluded D K Shivakumar.