Bengaluru: Former prime minister and JD(S) chief HD Deve Gowda has expressed his displeasure over the political imbroglio in the state.

He said in a meeting with his party members thus: “We had kept quiet. It was the Congress leaders who rushed to us and asked us to form the government along with them. We had not sought the post of CM as well. But it is they who offered us the post and asked HD Kumaraswamy to become the CM.”

He also took a dig at the Congress for inducing fissures in the government.

“It is the Congressmen who are troubling us. Don’t I know who is behind all this mess? However, I won’t take any decision as of now. Let the CM come from the United States. We will take a collective decision,” he added.

Obviously, when the former PM said, “Don’t I know who is behind all this mess?”, he was referring to former chief minister Siddaramaiah.

It is being said that a few rebel MLAs might reconsider their decision to resign if Siddaramaiah is made the CM. Therefore, Deve Gowda is pointing fingers at him.

What gives fillip to this feeling or accusation is that a few Congress MLAs like MTB Nagaraj, Congress MLA from Hosakote and ST Somashekar, Congress MLA from Yeshwantpur have openly batted against HD Kumaraswamy in the previous months.

It might be apt to say that Deve Gowda and Siddarmaiah share a bittersweet relationship. It was Deve Gowda who expelled Siddaramaiah from the JD(S) in the mid-2000s.

Sources say that the two are so suspicious of each other that their cronies in the opposite side generally keep their cell phones switched on, with a view to help their masters get a first-hand account of what’s happening in meetings.