Bengaluru: Siddaramaiah turned down an invitation from PM Modi to join him in China during his visit as “it came too late”. He denied that his absence was for political reasons. “It (my not going) is because of (Gram Panchayat) polls and because the invitation came too late,” Siddaramaiah told reporters here, when asked why he was not travelling to China. This is not the first time Siddaramaiah has declined an offer from Modi.
Chief Ministers from Gujarat, Maharashtra and Karnataka were expected to be in Beijing when Modi reaches there, with focus on attracting investments for their states. Gujarat Chief Minister Anandiben Patel and her counterpart from Maharashtra Devendra Fadnavis are however already in China. They will not be officially part of the Prime Minister’s entourage but will travel separately to be in Beijing when Modi reaches there. The Chief Ministers will be attending a programme in Beijing to be addressed by the Prime Minister. In March, he had declined an offer by Prime Minister to be the convenor of a task force to implement ” Swachh Bharat Abhiyan” and instead preferred to be just a member.
The two-phase Gram Panchayat polls are scheduled for May 29 and June 2 that will be a major electoral test for Siddaramaiah two years after becoming the Chief Minister and a year after the Modi wave swept the polls in the state in Lok Sabha polls, fetching 17 of the 28 seats for BJP.
