The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Siddaramaiah joining Congress not ruled out

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Jun 21, 2006

Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Siddaramaiah joining Congress not ruled out

Staff Reporter

Congress, AIPJD to adopt a coordinated approach to various issues

Bangalore: All-India Congress Committee general secretary A.K. Antony on Tuesday said he would not rule out the possibility of admitting the All-India Progressive Janata Dal leader Siddaramaiah into the Congress. But, for now, the two parties were working together to oppose, what he termed, the wrong and anti-people policies of the Kumaraswamy government.

Mr. Antony, who is on a three-day visit to the State to study the political situation in the State, said the former Deputy Chief Minister had not expressed a desire to join the Congress.

On the quarrel between Tejaswini Sriramesh, MP, and M. Lingappa, former MLA, and their police complaints against each other, the former Kerala Chief Minister said an inquiry had been ordered into the incident. Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president M. Mallikarjun Kharge had been asked to issue a show-cause notice to Mr. Lingappa.

He said the Janata Dal (S)-Bharatiya Janata Party coalition government had lost its sheen and the people were disillusioned with it. The agenda of the Congress now was to strengthen the party in rural areas to bring it back to power. He asked party leaders and workers to give up their Bangalore-centric approach. But, he added that the Congress was not in a hurry and did not expect a miracle to happen. The coalition set-up would face more problems and fail to fulfil its promises. The Congress was ready for any eventuality, including elections.

`No change for now'

Mr. Antony said there was no move, for the present, to change N. Dharam Singh as Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly and the Congress Legislature Party, or Mr. Kharge as president of the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee.

He said the AICC did not want to react to the Bangalore-Mysore Infrastructure Corridor project controversy and had left it to the State leaders to decide on the course of action.

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