Karnataka - Gulbarga   

Chavan coming next week to take stock of situation

GULBARGA: Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly and former Chief Minister N. Dharam Singh said on Sunday that All-India Congress Committee general secretary Prithviraj Chavan would visit Bangalore next week to take stock of the political situation in the State.

Addressing presspersons, Mr. Singh said according to the indications available from the party leadership, Mr. Chavan would hold discussions with senior leaders of the party on the political situation in the State with a section of the MLAs in Janata Dal (Secular) and the Bharatiya Janata Party reportedly opposed to mid-term elections.

Mr. Singh said that there were reports of a section of the Janata Dal (Secular) MLAs sending signals to their party leadership that they were opposed to mid-term elections and there were also reports of some first-time MLAs of the BJP also opposing mid-term elections.

Asked whether there were any feelers from these legislators to the Congress for forming an alternative government, Mr. Singh replied in negative and said the entire political situation in the State was in a state of total confusion. He, however, clarified that the Congress was clear in its stand on the present political situation that it was in favour of a mid-term polls.

Lashing out at BJP leaders for making the issue of denial of power to them by the Janata Dal (Secular) as a major issue and demanding mid-term elections, Mr. Singh said that the BJP instead of harping on the issue of “betrayal” by the former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy should come out with the real issues on which the party would fight the next elections to the Assembly. He said that the issue of transfer of power between the Janata Dal (Secular) and the BJP was an agreement reached between two individuals — B.S. Yediyurappa and H.D. Kumaraswamy — and had no official sanction of both the parties’ leadership and the failure of Mr. Kumaraswamy to hand over power could not become an election issue.

He alleged that BJP leaders were trying to whip up passions and create euphoria in the State that injustice had been done to him more by the Janata Dal (Secular). “

Mr. Singh said the Congress had worked out a programme to counter the BJP campaign. In the first phase, the party would organise a State-level convention in Bangalore next week to explain to the people the circumstances under which President’s Rule was imposed and who were responsible for this.

On November 5, a convention of newly-elected members of the Urban Local Bodies in the State of the party would be held in Bangalore.

Later, the party would reach out to the people through a State-wide yatra by senior leaders to “expose” the failures of the previous Janata Dal (Secular)-BJP Government and also explain the reasons behind the crack in the relation between the coalition partners.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

Poor patients to get free meals
Buddha idol consecrated at Buddha Vihar
‘Buddhism is the tallest among all religions’
Chavan coming next week to take stock of situation

Copyright © 2007, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu