BANGALORE: Karnataka Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy left for New Delhi on Tuesday to call on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Union Ministers to discuss matters relating to the State other than the Cauvery issue.

Sources in the Government told The Hindu that prior to his departure, he told Deputy Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa and Minister for Water Resources K.S. Eshwarappa that the Cauvery issue would not figure in his talks with the Prime Minister.

Following this assurance, Mr. Yediyurappa and Mr. Eshwarappa, who were booked to travel with the Chief Minister, called off the trip in the last minute.

It was only on Monday that Mr. Yediyurappa and Industries Minister Katta Subramanya Naidu were in Delhi to brief the top BJP leadership on the Cauvery issue.

However, it appears that senior officials of the Water Resources Department had prepared the draft of a detailed memorandum to be submitted by Mr. Kumaraswamy to the Prime Minister.

"Injustice"

The Chief Minister said that the Cauvery issue would not figure in the discussions, but on Monday he said he would be apprising the Prime Minister of the State's predicament with regard to the Cauvery tribunal award and the "injustice" meted out to the State.

He is also expected to seek the intervention of the Union Government in the matter.

Earlier, Mr. Kumaraswamy said in the Legislative Assembly that his meeting with the Prime Minister on Wednesday would be confined to pursuing the State's pending projects.

Assurance

He assured the Assembly that any decision on the Cauvery issue would be finalised only at an all-party meeting scheduled to be held here on or before February 22. A meeting with the Karnataka MPs in New Delhi on Wednesday has been put off.

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