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Veerendra Kumar suspended from JD (S)

P. Sunderarajan

"He campaigned for the Congress and made derogatory remarks against Gowda"

M.P. Veerendra Kumar

NEW DELHI: The battle within the Janata Dal (Secular) took another turn on Thursday. Party president H.D. Deve Gowda suspended the leader of the party's parliamentary wing, M.P. Veerendra Kumar, from primary membership for `anti-party' activities.

In a sharp reaction, Mr. Kumar declared that meetings of the national executive and national council would be held on December 22 at Thiruvananthapuram where Mr. Gowda and his supporters would be removed "lock, stock and barrel" from the party.

The day's developments unfolded with a meeting of the party's parliamentary wing at 10 a.m. Chaired by the whip, M. Shivanna, the meeting decided to remove Mr. Kumar as leader of the wing on the ground that he had campaigned for the Congress candidate Siddaramaiah in the recent Chamundeswari Assembly by-election in Karnataka, and resolved that Mr. Gowda should take immediate disciplinary action against him for "his deliberate and calculative move to destabilise the party."

A resolution adopted said, "It is unfortunate that Shri Veerendra Kumar, who is not only leader of the party in the Lok Sabha, but also president of the party unit in Kerala, had come to Mysore to campaign for the Congress candidate, Shri Siddaramaiah, who played a major role to destabilise the Janata Dal (Secular) party in Karnataka. Mr. Veerendra Kumar not only went against the party and campaigned for the Congress candidate, but had also made derogatory and un-parliamentary statements against Mr. Gowda."

The resolution noted that Mr. Kumar along with others had persuaded Mr. Gowda to continue as party president to "save the party", when he expressed a desire to step down during the meeting of the national executive here on February 20 to discuss the formation of the coalition Government in Karnataka by Mr. Gowda's son, H.D. Kumaraswamy in alliance with the Bharatiya Janata Party.

Members of the parliamentary party also elected Mr. Gowda as their new leader. Barring Mr. Kumar, all others participated in the meeting. The party has a total of five members in Parliament, three in the Lok Sabha and two in the Rajya Sabha. While Mr. Gowda, Mr. Kumar, and Mr. Shivanna, are from the Lower House, M.A.M. Ramaswamy, and Rajasekhara Murthy represent the party in the Upper House.

Addressing a press conference, secretary-general and spokesperson of the party, Kunwar Danish Ali, also alleged that Mr. Kumar and his supporters had "forged" the signature of senior party leader and Deputy Speaker of the Delhi Legislative Assembly, Shoib Iqbal, in a recent press statement criticising Mr. Gowda. "Mr. Iqbal spoke to me and party vice-president, Bapu Kaldate and clearly told us that his signature had been forged."

Mr. Kumar, speaking to reporters later, emphatically denied it and said, "I spoke to Mr. Iqbal on Thursday also. He informed that he will not be able to attend the meetings to be held in Thiruvananthapuram, but would abide with all actions against Mr. Gowda."

The issue of suspension of Mr. Kumaraswamy and 38 other members of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly from the party for forming a Government in alliance with the BJP is set to come on to the centre-stage. There are indications that the suspension would be revoked at the national executive meeting convened by the Gowda faction here on December 25.

While condemning Mr. Kumar, it justified the formation of the coalition Government with the BJP as being a result of the machinations of the Congress. "On account of the evil designs of the Congress party, the party MLAs who had suffered at the hands of the [previous] Congress-led coalition Government took the decision to form the Government with the BJP to avoid immediate elections," it said.

Confirming that the Disciplinary Action Committee had submitted its report, the party secretary-general, however, declined to comment on the content of the report.

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