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M.P. Prakash faction set to join Congress this week

S. Rajendran

Some ‘requests’ have already been put before the party

The group will not join the BJP, say sources
in the faction
It has sought Congress ticket for
its members in the coming elections

M.P. Prakash

Bangalore: After vacillating for nearly two months, the M.P. Prakash faction of the Janata Dal (Secular) is all set to join the Congress. The announcement is expected next week after the finalisation of the nitty-gritty of an understanding with the Congress leadership.

Sources in the M.P. Prakash group told The Hindu here on Saturday that they would not join the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and there would be no further talks with any of the BJP leaders. (A discussion between Mr. Prakash and BJP leader L.K. Advani was contemplated when the latter was in Bangalore two days ago.)

The Prakash group, which has already submitted some “requests” to the Congress, will finalise the understanding with the Congress leaders here and thereafter have a formal discussion with the AICC President Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi.

The Congress leadership will make the formal announcement. The requests of the Prakash group largely pertain to a commitment by the Congress leadership to assure party ticket to most members of the group in the coming Assembly elections.

The entry of the Prakash group of former legislators is expected to give a boost to the Congress, which has been scouting for support from the dominant Lingayat community. Of the 20 former legislators forming part of the Prakash group, 15 belong to the Lingayat community.

Meeting

At a meeting, most members left it to Mr. Prakash to finalise the understanding with the Congress leadership and he has since been in touch with Union Minister Oscar Fernandes, former Chief Minister M. Veerappa Moily , KPCC president Mallikarjuna Kharge and Congress general secretary in-charge of Karnataka Prithiviraj Chauhan.

That the elections will not be held according to the recommendations of the Kuldip Singh Commission on delimitation of constituencies has come as a relief to the Prakash group.

Mr. Prakash himself would have been affected as Hadagali, the constituency he represents, is to be merged with a neighbouring constituency. This would have happened to Sandur represented by Santosh Lad and Lingsugar represented by Amaregouda Bayyapur.

They are close associates of Mr. Prakash and leaders who pushed for breaking away from the Janata Dal (Secular).

While the former Prime Minister and president of the Janata Dal (Secular) H.D. Deve Gowda has stated that all those wanting to quit the party could do so, former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy has still been trying to prevail upon the Prakash faction to remain in the Janata Dal (Secular).

The group includes K.N. Rajanna, B.C. Patil, K. Balaraj, B.T. Channabasappa, B. Chidanand, Amaregouda Bayyapur, H.S. Mahadev Prasad, M.Y. Patil, H. Ekantaiah, Sharanabasappa Darshanapur, N. Suryanarayana Reddy, Santosh Lad, Ravikanth Patil, H. Anjaneya, N.S. Khed, Mariyappa, S.M. Nagaraj, Narasimha Nayak and Prafulla Madhukar.

No conditions

Bellary Staff Correspondent reports: Mr. Prakash has made it clear that he has not imposed any condition to join the Congress party but has stressed that “winning candidates” should be given party ticket for the coming elections.

Reacting to the reported statement of Mr. Kharge that “people are welcome to join the party without imposing conditions”, Mr. Prakash told presspersons on Saturday that “when we join the party, it will gain strength and it will also help that party to come to power.

zKeeping that in view I was keen that winning candidates should be given party ticket and had not put any conditions.”

Asked if he were not aware of the “style of functioning” of Mr. Deve Gowda and the unilateral decisions taken by the latter and the absence of internal democracy in Janata Dal (Secular) and why he had not opposed it while he was in the party, Mr. Prakash said that he had tolerated all that in the interest of the party but it had become unbearable forcing him to come out of the party.

Mr. Prakash was here to participate in the two-day conference on “Taking Vijayanagar’s past to future” organised by the JSW Hampi Foundation.

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