Karnataka - Bidar

Kharge hits out at Janata Dal (S) leaders

Staff Correspondent

`Deve Gowda and Kumaraswamy were jealous of the growth of the Congress. They could not stomach its good performance in the panchayat polls'

Bidar: Congress President Sonia Gandhi had agreed to all the demands of Janata Dal (S) President H.D. Deve Gowda in order to save the Dharam Singh Government, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee President M. Mallikarjun Kharge said here on Saturday.

He told party workers that the Mr. Deve Gowda had sought the portfolios of Home and Water Resources. Ms. Gandhi had also agreed to form a coordination committee to settle issues between the coalition partners. The Congress had nominated senior leaders C.K. Jaffer Sharief, Shamanur Shivashankarappa and D.B. Chandre Gowda to the committee.

However, the JD (S) did not nominate its leaders to the committee.

Mr. Deve Gowda and his son H.D. Kumaraswamy were jealous of the growth of the Congress.

They could not stomach its good performance in the zilla and taluk panchayat elections. They brought down the Government deliberately, he alleged.

He also denied allegations of Mr. Deve Gowda that Congress leaders had harassed JD (S) legislators. "How could we harass them? They had all the important portfolios. They also had direct access to senior leaders in the Congress." The JD (S) leaders were power hungry. They had exposed themselves in public. He predicted that the JD (S)-BJP Government would not last long.

Earlier, he inaugurated a workshop to create awareness about the National Rural Guarantee Employment Programme among party workers.

The former Ministers B.S. Patil Sasnur and Basavaraj Patil Humnabad, MLCs Quazi Arshad Ali, Maruti Male and Rathna Kushnoor and the district unit president of the party Basavaraj Bulla were present.

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