Bengaluru (PTI) Congress veteran and former Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has said “false propaganda” that he was anti-Hindu took centrestage during the 2018 Assembly elections and denied he was against the majority faith as projected by the BJP.

In an interview to PTI Video, the excerpts of which were released on Monday, he further said there was nothing wrong in state Congress President DK Shivakumar also aspiring for the chief minister’s post in the event of the party winning the May 10 Assembly polls, as “healthy competition” was fine.

“See, if there is healthy competition there is nothing wrong. If Dk Shivakumar wants to become CM and he is an aspirant there is nothing wrong. If I become an aspirant for the CM post there is nothing wrong. Ultimately newly elected MLAs will decide and the high command will take a decision,” on the top post, he said.

Asserting that the people of Karnataka want to show the door to the ruling BJP, Siddaramaiah said the saffron organisation cannot “mislead” the voters like it did five years ago.

“In 2013, there was a clear mandate from the people for the Congress party. We had done good work during our tenure between 2013 and 2018 (when he was CM). The false propaganda had taken upper hand because they made allegations against me that I am against majority communites, against upper class and like that and that I am against Hindutva/Hindu dharma.” “Like that they have projected but it is not true. This time, the people will not believe their propaganda because they know there is no truth in their allegation. That is why, this time they (BJP) are not talking much about Hindutva/Hindu Rasthra or Hindu dharma because with money power they wanted to win this time. But it is not possible,” he added. He claimed the BJP was able to swing the mandate in its favour in the 2018 polls through false propaganda.

To a question, he said “caste is not an important factor in the elections.” “Issues are important. Now the issues are corruption, price rise, unemployment…like that there are so many issues. People of Karnataka will not consider caste,” he insisted.

Asked if the May 10 election will be a battle between himself and Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he replied in the negative.

“It is not a fight between myself and Modi and that issue will not be discussed in the coming assembly election. The issues will be the local issues concerning the people of Karnataka and it is an election to the state legistature, not the Parliament. Therefore the people of Karnataka will discuss local issues,” he said.