The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Just numbers won’t do, feel State Congress leaders

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Thursday, Nov 08, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Just numbers won’t do, feel State Congress leaders

Special Correspondent

Senior party functionaries discuss political situation in the State

‘Hotch-potch arrangement will not augur well for the people’
BJP’s complaint against D.K. Shivakumar criticised

Bangalore: A few senior Congress leaders on Wednesday held an informal meeting here to take stock of the political situation in the State. They discussed the issue of the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Janata Dal (Secular) parading their MLAs before President Pratibha Patil in New Delhi and its possible impact on the Centre’s decision on their demand for inviting the former Deputy Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa to form the government.

According to sources in the party, the meeting, which was attended among others by Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president M. Mallikarjun Kharge, was of the view that the Union Government could not take only the numerical strength of the two parties for allowing them to come to power.

The leaders felt that such a hotch-potch arrangement, particularly when the coalition partners were at loggerheads since the beginning culminating in the break up of the alliance, should not be given a chance to rule the State, as it would not augur well for the people.

However, the sources said that the leaders had no other option, but to abide by whatever decision taken by the high command.

The meeting deliberated on the observations made by the former Public Works Minister H.D. Revanna against the attempts at forming a government.

The leaders expressed their anger about the lodging of a complaint by the Bangalore city unit of the BJP against the former minister D.K. Shivakumar for using intemperate language against the former Union Minister H.N. Ananth Kumar at a public meeting held here on Tuesday.

Reacting to the complaint, Mr. Kharge told The Hindu that leaders such as Mr. Ananth Kumar, who were in public life, should be ready to be reciprocated when they do not refrain themselves in making remarks, which was derogatory in nature. Mr. Ananth Kumar should not have called the Congress workers “goondas,” he added.

Mr. Shiva Kumar said that the former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy had not reacted to the BJP leaders’ foul language, but the Congress leaders like him would not tolerate any disrespectful attack on the Congress president Sonia Gandhi, whom the party workers consider as their icon.

Karnataka Pradesh Youth Congress Committee president Sadanand V. Danganavar and general secretary B.V. Srinivas have condemned the remarks made by the BJP leaders.

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