Karnataka - Udupi   

Congress leaders attack KDF governance

Udupi: M. Mallikarjun Kharge, president of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC), on Sunday alleged that corruption was the hallmark of the 20-month regime of Karnataka Development Front (KDF).

He was speaking after launching the “Janandolana” of the party here.

Mr. Kharge said that it was not the Congress which had levelled charges of corruption against the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and Janata Dal (Secular) parties. It was the former coalition partners who indulged in exposing one another. The Congress was ready for Assembly elections. But it wanted the bogus voters eliminated from the electoral rolls. There were nearly 30-lakh bogus voters in the electoral rolls, he said and cited the example of Humnabad where there were allegedly 2,000 voters in excess of its population.

He charged that the former Deputy Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa had little understanding of financial matters. “No wonder he could not fulfil even 10 per cent of the promises made in the two budgets presented by him,” Mr. Kharge said. Yet, it was strange that Mr. Yeddyurappa was now training his guns on Governor Rameshwar Thakur.

The KDF government had failed to provide a single house for the poor. “If the Congress returns to power, it will build 15 lakh houses for the poor,” he added.

The Congress was committed to the welfare of weaker sections. It was the Congress which had brought the Land Reforms Act for landless farmers, Mr. Kharge said.

The former Chief Minister M. Veerappa Moily said that poor administration of the KDF had seen a lot of IT firms moving from Bangalore to Hyderabad.

The seven-year-rule of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Government at Centre had seen naxalism spread to 160 districts in the country. But this problem of naxalism was under control during the tenures of Rajiv Gandhi and P.V. Narasimha Rao. It was the BJP which had given the nod to Sethusamudram Project. But now it was using the project for communal purposes, he charged.

Union Minister of State for Labour and Employment Oscar Fernandes; Union Minister of State for Planning M.V. Rajasekharan; the former Ministers D.K. Shivakumar, Kagodu Thimmappa, Ramanath Rai and Vasanth Salian, were among those present.

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Congress leaders attack KDF governance

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