Karnataka - Madikeri   

Anti-party activities will not be tolerated: MP

Wooing voters: A.H. Vishwanath, MP, addressing members of panchayats and the Madikeri City Municipal Council in Madikeri on Saturday.

Madikeri: The Congress party will show no mercy on those indulging in anti-party activities, regardless of their standing in the party, A.H. Vishwanath, MP, said here on Saturday.

He was addressing a meeting of the elected representatives from the gram, taluk and zilla panchayats besides the Madikeri City Municipal Council here to seek votes for the Congress-JD (S) alliance candidate in the election to the Legislative Council from Kodagu Local Authorities’ Constituency. Members of the Congress themselves had created a situation resulting in the defeat of the party candidates in the last two elections from the Kodagu Local Authorities’ Constituency and it should not recur this time, Mr. Vishwanath cautioned.

Late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was instrumental in giving the real power to all sections of society in the panchayat raj system by bringing in amendments to the Constitution, Mr. Vishwanath said. If today there were more than 40 per cent of women elected to various bodies of the panchayati raj, the credit should go to Mr. Rajiv Gandhi and the Congress party. The move was aimed at strengthening the “gram swaraj”, he said.

Mr. Vishwanath criticised the BJP Government in the State alleging that it was resorting to “money power” to run the administration. The secular forces (Congress and the JD-S) had come together to fight the election to the Legislative Council with the intention of putting an end to the misrule by the BJP. He called upon the local party leadership to apprise each voter before the elections to cast votes properly as “second preference” votes could become crucial in the final run.

T. John, Congress candidate from Kodagu Local Authorities’ Constituency, said senior party leaders of both the Congress and the JD (S) had taken the right decision to unitedly fight the Council election to defeat the “communal” BJP in the State. He alleged that since the BJP assumed power in the State, incidence of communal violence had increased.

President of the Kodagu District Congress Committee Veena Achaiah presided over the meeting.

Congress leaders B.K. Krishna, T.P. Ramesh, Neravanda Umesh, K.M. Ganesh, Dharmaja, former MLA from Bangalore Ivan, JD (S) leaders former MLA D.S. Madappa, Satish Kumar, M.P. Muthappa, and Muneer Ahmad were among those present.

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