Buoyed by the assembly election by-polls, which saw the ruling Congress sweeping in all the three seats, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday said he won in the ‘people's court'. He gave credit to the guarantee schemes for the party's victory in the assembly by-polls in Sandur, Shiggaon and Channapatna.

“You know what Mahatma Gandhi said. He said people's court is better than the courts. Now people's court has given me its verdict,” Siddaramaiah told reporters. This victory was significant for the Congress as the BJP and JD(S) formed an alliance, he explained. “We won from Kalyana Karnataka (Sandur), Kittur Karnataka region (Shiggaon), and old Mysuru region (Channapatna). In all the places we won. So, this is very significant."

“After our government came to power about one and half years ago, the BJP made false allegations on me and my government. They also spread lies about our schemes,” Siddaramaiah said. The CM is an accused in the MUDA site allotment scam where 14 sites in upmarket of Mysuru was allotted to his wife, Parvathi. After the controversy broke out, Parvathi returned the sites to MUDA. He also came down heavily on the opposition BJP and JD(S) for their lies and ‘baseless allegations'.

The Chief Minister also took a swipe at JDS supremo H D Deve Gowda and his son Union Minister H D Kumaraswamy for "crying" in public during elections. “Deve Gowda and his sons cry, but didn't their heart melt when several women cried in the Prajwal Revanna case in Hassan?” he asked. Former JD(S) MP and grandson of former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda, Prajwal Revanna is in jail for allegedly sexually assaulting several women and filming them.