Vijayapura: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah defended the recent hike in petrol and diesel prices, claiming that the hike had nothing to do with the election results. Speaking to reporters in Vijayapura, Siddaramaiah was responding to accusations by Leader of the Opposition R Ashoka that the hike was a retaliatory measure for the performance of his Indian National Congress party in the recent parliamentary elections.
Commenting on the election results, Siddaramaiah said, “In Karnataka, we did not win as many seats as we expected, but we have increased our number of seats compared to the last election. We won nine seats this time, but the BJP’s tally has dropped from 25 to 19. We did not win as many seats as we expected.”
Siddaramaiah further criticised the BJP, saying, “The BJP is a party that lost the elections. Its tally has gone down from 303 seats last time to 240 this time. Modi’s strength has faded.”
Addressing rumours that the state guarantees were election-focused, Siddaramaiah clarified that “the guarantees are not given for elections, they are given for the poor,” stressing that the implementation of these guarantees is meant to help the underprivileged sections of the population.
