MB Patil rejects BP Yatnal’s claim of a signature campaign against Siddaramaiah

Minister MB Patil was talking to reporters in Vijayapur on Monday. | Photo credit: SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT

Minister for Large and Medium Industries and Infrastructure Development MB Patil dismissed MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnal’s allegations that he was involved in the process of ousting former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah as baseless, frivolous and irresponsible.

“Mr. Yatnal should stop making such reckless statements. He seems to have developed this ugly habit of making irresponsible statements. He should realize that it makes him look like a man suffering from some disease. Mr. Yatnal must stop making such baseless statements. Otherwise, we will be forced to take a different course to respond to such lies and smear campaigns on Monday,” he told reporters on Monday.

“Whether Mr. Siddaramaiah is the Chief Minister or not, he remains our leader. He was our leader in the past and he is in the present and will remain so in the future,” he said.

“Mr. Yatnal made this ridiculous claim that Congress leaders Zameer Ahmed Khan, Satish Jarkiholi and I were against Mr. Siddaramaiah continuing as Chief Minister and that we collected signatures from 36 MLAs to oust him. This is completely false. First of all, we have done no such thing. There is no practice of collecting signatures in our third party. There is no doubt that any Congress leader would lose confidence in the leadership of Mr. Siddaramaiah,” the minister said.

“The decision to replace the chief minister was taken by the party high command for various reasons. There is no need for anyone to create unnecessary confusion about it. Mr. Siddaramaiah and Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge are our top leaders. They are like the two eyes of our party. Both were, are and will be our leaders. Regardless of whether they are in any position of power vis-à-vis them, our minister remains unchanged. After the change, the Congress leader remains. Rahul Gandhi personally met and spoke to Mr. Siddaramaiah and urged him not to back down from electoral politics,” he said.

Mr. Patil said there were no differences of opinion between Mr. Siddaramaiah and Minister Satish Jarkiholi. “There may be minor rifts and differences of opinion, but these are natural in politics. The minister’s brother Balachandra Jarkiholi said the two are long-time friends and have patched things up after a few differences of opinion. It is also true that there was some confusion between Minister Zameer Ahmed Khan and Mr. Siddaramaiah during the permanent broadcast in Davanagere as a sideline.” said Mr. Patil.

“I think Mr. Yatnal is doing all this to secure his re-entry into the BJP, the party that expelled him. But I urge him not to forget his own political history. When he left the BJP, many leaders, including some of us, supported him. Mr. Yatnal ran as an independent candidate during the 2015 Legislative Council. It seems that we helped him win the election as a second candidate. We helped him win only by that he defeated some other candidate.This and today he is busy spreading false propaganda against us.He later returned to BJP with the help of BS Yediyurappa Many BJP leaders including Jagadish Shettar and Pralhad Joshi opposed his return.

Published – 15 Sep 2026 21:08 IST