The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : JD(S) minorities panel to support Shivabasappa

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Wednesday, Nov 22, 2006
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

JD(S) minorities panel to support Shivabasappa

Staff Reporter

Minorities told to support those who helped them

STRATEGY SESSION: Janata Dal (Secular) minority leaders Iqbal Ansari (right), Merajuddin Patel and Zamir Ahmed at a meeting in Bangalore on Tuesday. — Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

BANGALORE: The minorities committee of the Janata Dal (Secular) has decided to support the party's candidate Shivabasappa in the Chamundeshwari byelection slated for December 4.

The decision was taken at an emergency meeting convened by the committee here on Tuesday after many of its leaders, including Minister for Labour and Minority Welfare Iqbal Ansari, Minister for Wakf B.Z. Zamir Ahmed Khan, MLA and former Minister Merajuddin Patel, MLC Abdul Azeem and former Deputy Chairman of the Legislative Council David Simeon, deliberated for over two hours. The focal point of the deliberation was whether to support Mr. Shivabasappa for strengthening the hands of the party president H.D. Deve Gowda and Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy in the "overall interest of minorities" ignoring the presence of the BJP in the Government?

However, the committee took the decision with specific observations that "the BJP has nothing to gain by its stand, the Congress has used and jettisoned the minorities during its previous tenures in the State and the minorities have faith in the party president and the Kumaraswamy Government."

Mr. Merajuddin Patel, who had been projected as the next president of the Janata Dal (S) State unit, alleged that the Congress had plans to finish off the Janata Dal (S) politically even as it was a partner in the Government.

He argued that Mr. Kumaraswamy had saved the party by joining hands with the BJP and in the overall context the minorities should associate themselves with those who had helped them.

Mr. Ahmed Khan said that the election was a challenge not merely to the Government. It was time for all the minority communities to stand by Mr. Deve Gowda and Kumaraswamy's "secular" Government, as the BJP was only a working partner in it, he added.

He insisted that the party should entrust the election works to responsible workers. The committee was prepared to take up the election campaign in five major pockets of the constituency where a significant number of minority votes were concentrated, he said.

Refuting the complaints that the party had not been doing anything for the minorities, Mr. Ahmed Khan said that the Government was willing to allocate over 80 acres of land near the Devanahalli International Airport for the Wakf Board.

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