Bengaluru, Feb 1: Despite a gag order issued by KPCC president Dinesh Gundurao on statements to the media, Congress legislators on Thursday continued to praise and swear allegiance to former chief minister Siddaramaiah, stoking discomfort with coalition partner the JD(S).
Rajashekar B Patil, mines and geology department minister, and Koppal MLA Raghavendra K Basavaraj Hitnal on Thursday hailed Siddaramaiah as their leader. “What’s wrong in praising Siddaramaiah?” they said.
Hitnal said if his constituency Koppal had improved it was only because of Siddaramaiah. “This is a coalition government. Our chief minister is HD Kumaraswamy and leader is Siddaramaiah,” Patil said.
Adding more fuel to fire, Siddaramaiah’s loyalists, former minister B Shivaram from Hassan and N Cheluvarayaswamy from Mandya, demanded that the Congress field candidates from Hassan and Mandya, the two Vokkaliga-dominated constituencies, in the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls. Both seats are likely to be given to the JD(S) under a seat-sharing pact between the two parties.
Cheluvarayaswamy said the Congress should look to field either actor MH Ambareesh’s wife Sumalatha or his son Abhishek “as tribute to the departed leader”. In Hassan, Shivaram said the Congress has great potential to win the seat and hence he and former minister A Manju have been demanding that the JD(S) should sacrifice either Hassan or Mandya Lok Sabha seat for the Congress since party Supremo H D Deve Gowda has decided not to contest from there.
On Wednesday, Manju had openly said the district unit would not support the candidature of PWD minister Revanna’s son Prajwal, if he contests from Hassan. Gowda had recently announced that he would make way for Prajwal to contest from the seat.
Revanna on Thursday hit back at Manju saying the JD(S) is free to field any candidate in segments allocated to it. “Be it Prajwal or Deve Gowda it will be JDS party’s decision in consultation with Congress high command,” he said. “Who is he to question it?”
These developments indicate seat sharing for the general election will be anything but smooth as it is likely to be a battle for one-upmanship between Gowda and Siddaramaiah.
Meanwhile, Kumaraswamy played down the comments, saying, “I’m telling all the people of the state to have belief in me.” He had earlier this week threatened to step down over the squabble.
N Mahesh, former minster and BSP MLA, called the alleged attempts to undermine Kumaraswamy as “unfortunate” and urged Siddaramaiah to control his party’s MLAs. “...being part of the government, they should not be speaking against the chief minister,” Mahesh said. “Their high command, especially Siddaramaiah, has to control them.”
MLA’s son launches government work
Belagavi: Congress legislator Laxmi Hebbalkar was in the thick of controversy again, this time for allowing her son to launch government works in her constituency — Belagavi (Rural) — on her behalf.
Hebbalkar, who has a running feud with the Jarkhiholi siblings in the district, on Tuesday posted a picture of her son Mrinal on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram launching road work in Mutaga village on Thursday by digging a spot with a pickaxe. It made headlines on some television channels.
Hebbalkar defended the decision, saying there is nothing wrong in Mrinal being present at the programme. “I had asked him to go there,” Hebbalkar said. “There is no question of breaching protocol as Mrinal hasn’t launched work. He was one among 10 local leaders who offered puja.”
Hebbalkar claimed the local gram panchayat president launched work and later 10 other local leaders including Mrinal joined in. “I was supposed to be there, but since I was in Bengaluru, I asked Mrinal to be present in Mutaga,” Hebbalkar said.
Comments
Add new comment