Bengaluru, Feb. 25 -- Chief minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday attributed the large number of vacancies across government departments to failures by the previous Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) regime, even as government job aspirants held a protest in Dhadwad.

In a statement, Siddaramaiah said that when the Congress assumed office in 2023, more than 26.4 million government posts were vacant, describing the situation as the result of "prolonged inaction under the previous BJP government, which failed to initiate timely recruitment or create a structured roadmap to fill vacancies."

"It is deeply unfortunate that BJP leaders are choosing to mislead innocent students even now to serve their narrow political interests," he said.

The chief minis...