Cong.(I) glosses over Karnataka cross-voting

By S. K. Ramoo

BANGALORE, APRIL 3. The Congress(I) leadership is fully aware that eight party MLAs cross-voted in the recent Rajya Sabha elections from Karnataka, defying the party whip, but no action has been taken to stem the rot in the CLP.

Mr. S.M. Krishna, Chief Minister and PCC(I) president, admitted that a handful of MLAs voted in favour of the liquor baron and industrialist, Mr. Vijay Mallya, whose candidature was supported by the State Janata Dal(U) leaders, including the former Chief Minister, Mr. J.H. Patel and Mr. Ramakrishna Hegde. Although all three Congress(I) nominees won in the first round, cross-voting disturbed Mr. Krishna. Initially, he gave enough hints that the party leadership would not take the defiance lying down. It was expected that it would institute an inquiry to identify the ``culprits'' and take disciplinary action.

But to the dismay of the party leaders, both the AICC(I) member, who is in charge of Karnataka affairs, Mr. Ghulam Nabi Azad, and Mr. Krishna swept the issue under the carpet. Mr. Azad, who arrived here a day prior to the elections with the task of keeping the MLAs together, could not prevent the cross-voting.

Although it was expected that the issue would figure at last week's PCC(I) general body, both the members and leaders seemed to have glossed over it. A senior State party leader said the leadership had failed to display the resolve to deal with the situation firmly and promptly. Its ``ostrich-like'' attitude was bound to recoil.

On the eve of the Rajya Sabha elections, Mr. Krishna committed a faux pas in his attempt to make the Minister of State for Kannada and Culture, Ms. Rani Satish, one of the candidates without obtaining her consent. He had to plead helplessness, when she failed to oblige him.

The State party leadership has also ignored acts of defiance by the former Railway Minister, Mr. C.K. Jaffer Sharief. He accompanied a PCC(I) office-bearer who filed papers although the latter was not an official candidate. Earlier he allegedly made remarks challenging the leadership of Ms. Sonia Gandhi but he disowned them later. Members of the PCC(I) minority cell staged a day-long dharna demanding his ouster.

In an earlier instance, the State leadership ignored the demand publicly made by the Ramanagaram MLA, Mr. C.M. Lingappa, and his associates seeking the resignation of the Panchayat Raj and Rural Development Minister, Mr. M.Y. Ghorpade, who was blindly following the panchayat raj reservation formula evolved by the J.H. Patel Government.

The issue figured at the CLP meeting, but Mr. Krishna merely warned members not to demand the resignation of any minister publicly.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Regional
Previous : Judge discharged from service
Next     : Krishna meets Fernandes