The Hindu : Karnataka / Hassan News : Panchayat elections will not be put off: Poojary

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Jan 31, 2005

Karnataka

Karnataka - Hassan

Panchayat elections will not be put off: Poojary

By Our Staff Correspondent

HASSAN, JAN. 30. The President of the Karantaka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC), B. Janardhana Poojary, has said that the gram panchayat elections scheduled on February 25 and February 27 to 5,526 gram panchayats (GPs) in 27 districts in the State will not be postponed.

The All India Congress Committee (AICC) has directed the Chief Minister N. Dharam Singh to hold the polls as planned, he said.

Campaign

Speaking to presspersons on Saturday, he said that the Congress will kick start its election campaign from February 2 and a meeting of all senior party leaders, including Mr. Dharam Singh, has been convened in Bangalore on February 3.

Refusing to subscribe the view that the verdict of the people in the election to the GPs will be a "referendum" on the coalition Government in the State, Mr. Poojary noted that the elections are not based on the party symbols.

He said that the party has taken the election in all its seriousness.

Reacting to the demand on changing in the KPCC leadership, he said that there is nothing wrong in the leaders expressing their opinion with the AICC General Secretary in-charge of Karnataka, A.K. Antony. He said that he is neither a contestant nor an aspirant to the KPCC chief's post again.

Assessment

On the criticism being made against him by a few senior leaders, he said that Mr. Antony was in the State to assess the situation of the party's affairs and would submit a report to AICC based on his observations.

To a query on his reported resignation to the KPCC chief's post, Mr. Poojary said that the question of resigning from the post did not arise, as the AICC President, Sonia Gandhi, had appointed him.

He also refused to react to a statement said to be made by the former MP, G. Puttaswamy Gowda, that a few Congress leaders had pledged the party to the Hassan MP and former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda.

Mr. Poojary said that the coalition Government is concentrating on development and formulating pro-people policies.

On the delay in making appointments to the various boards and corporations, he said that pressure on the party to take a decision in this regard was mounting. The appointments were being delayed owing to political compulsions.

Compensation

Mr. Poojary was in Hassan to hand over the compensation to the bereaved families of the Congress councillor, Girija Shankar, and his friend, Jayaprakash, who were murdered by miscreants in Dyapalapura on October 12.

He handed over a cheque for Rs. 1.5 lakhs to each family.

He said that the KPCC had waited this long hoping that the district unit would compensate the families.

He directed them to raise funds to help both the families as soon as possible.

The Minister for Information, B. Shivaram; the former MP, G. Puttaswamy Gowda; and the MLC, S.M. Anand, were present on the occasion.

No deferment of panchayat polls: Dharam Singh: Page 4

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Panchayat elections will not be put off: Poojary