Mysuru: Enthused by the response evoked by the Jana Ashirvad Yatra in his stronghold, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah fired salvos at the opposition. Taking this opportunity the CM called the Bharatiya JanataParty(BJP) as communal and the Janata Dal (Secular) opportunistic.
Addressing the media at his Ramakrishna Nagar residence, the CM thanked theparty supporters for their overwhelming response for Jana Ashirvad Yatra in Mysuru, Mandya and Chamarajanagar districts and said “Only Congress has Pro-development agenda”.
“The JD(S) is no more a secular party as it shared power with the communal BJP in the past and is in all likelihood going to continue that alliance to grab power,” the CM alleged. Continuing potshots at JD(S) Supremo H D Devegowda, the CM said that it was the veteran leader who once said that the JD(S) would have to go ahead with an alliance with the BJP to form government over his dead body, but he did nothing when his party shared power with the BJP for 20 months. “Devegowda only justified his son’s actions later on claiming that Kumaraswamy had to join hands with the BJP to save the party. It clearly exposes the opportunistic stand of the JD(S),” the CM said endorsing Congressparty PresidentRahul Gandhi terming JD(S) as B-team of BJP.
Rahul Gandhi will continue his next phase of state tour as part of Jana Ashirvad Yatra in Malnad region during the first week of April, CMannounced. A massive Congress convention will be held in the state capital on April 6, he said.
The final selection of candidates will be done by the Congress high command after the recommendations are sent by the state committee forapproval based on discussion, the CM said.
The CM made serious efforts to push his son Yatindra and his cabinet colleague H C Mahadevappa’s son Sunil Bose into the electoral league, by introducing both to the party president Rahul Gandhi at the government guest house in Mysore on March 25.
The Congress received shot in the arm when ten Janata Dal Secular (JD-S) members, including seven former MLAs, on Sunday joined the ruling Congress in poll-bound Karnataka on March 25.
The leaders – B.Z. Zameer Ahmed Khan, M.C. Nanaiah, N. Chaluvarayaswamy, R.Akhanda Srinivasa Murthy, H.C. Balakrishna, Bheema Naik, Ramesh Bandisidde Gowda, Iqbal Ansari, Sarovar Srinivas and B. Ramakrishna – joined the party during party chief Rahul Gandhi’s rally on March 25.
Of the 10 leaders, the seven members of the assembly had quit JD(S) and tendered their resignations to Assembly Speaker K.B. Koliwad in March, a day after they had claimed to have voted in favour of the Congress’ third candidate G.C. Chandrasekhar in Friday’s Rajya Sabha polls.
