All 136 Congress MLAs made Siddaramaiah the Chief Minister: Laxmi Hebbalkar

Belagavi: Amid calls from some quarters about making D K Shivakumar the Chief Minister of Karnataka, Women and Child Welfare Minister Laxmi Hebbalkar on Friday said that all 136 MLAs of the Congress had elected Siddaramaiah as their leader and that he has been doing good work.

Hebbalkar added that Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar were like two eyes of the Congress, and that any decision on changing the chief minister would be taken by party high command.

She also refused to react to statements made by former minister Ramesh Jarkiholi, who had said that she was ‘vishkanya’ and that her son Mrinal lost the Lok Sabha election due to her karma.

Hebbalkar told reporters here on Friday that Siddaramaiah was the Congress' mass leader, while Shivakumar, during the Covid-19 pandemic, had traversed across the state and enthused party workers and had organised Congress in his capacity as KPCC president.

Earlier, a few seers had voiced their opinion that Shivakumar be made the Chief Minister of the state.

Regarding her son Mrinal being defeated in the Lok Sabha election from the Belgaum parliamentary constituency, Hebbalkar said that victory or loss was common in elections. "In war we cannot give up weapons for losing once and have to continue. We shall introspect the reasons for the losses," she said.

"After Channaraj Hattiholi was elected as an MLC from the Belgaum civic authorities constituency with the highest margin and later, I was re-elected as MLA from Belgaum Grameen assembly constituency, I had not reacted to the statements by Ramesh Jarkiholi. It is the people who give him a reply," Hebbalkar stated.

On another query on Jarkiholi accusing her of collecting Rs 1 lakh each from Anganwadi workers for the Lok Sabha election, she said, let him provide evidence for it and I shall reply.