Siddaramaiah was over-confident: Karnataka minister

Bengaluru, May 15 (IANS) Blaming Siddaramaiah for his "over-confidence", Karnataka Energy Minister D.K. Shivakumar on Tuesday said the Chief Minister was advised against contesting from two seats but he still went ahead.

He said the Congress did not do even 10 per cent of what the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) did during the campaigning.

"Rahul Gandhi (Congress President) did his best to come here and campaign in the state in the past three months. But it is not a good sign for the local leaders, who could not gauge the trend in their own constituencies," said Shivakumar.

Siddaramaiah decided to contest from the Badami and Chamundeshwari seats as he felt he knew the constituencies well even as he was "advised internally against doing so", he said.

"The decision was taken by him (Siddaramaiah) because he knew the constituencies well. We became over-confident… internally we had advised him that he should represent only one constituency," the Congress leader asserted.

Asked if it was Siddaramaiah’s "over-confidence", Shivakumar said: "Sure…It is his confidence which has taken (us down) to this level."

The Chief Minister is leading in the Badami seat, but is trailing in Chamundeshwari.

Asked whether Siddaramaiah was trying to reach out to the Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S), when he said he was open to a Dalit Chief Minister, Shivakumar said the party was keeping a tab on the numbers. "It is only after looking at the final figures that we will take a call."

At the same time, he said the party was "definitely" open to reaching out to the JD-S. "Why not? We want BJP to remain out of power," he said.

Shivakumar also denied there was any Modi wave in Karnataka, and said: "Our defects became their pluses."