Bangalore: A day after the Congress rally in Bangalore, the Janata Dal (Secular) has said that such party workers' gatherings will have no impact on the coalition Government and on the contrary only strengthen it.

Janata Dal (S) spokesman Y.S.V. Datta, MLC, told presspersons here on Monday that the people of the State and the JD (S) had seen many such rallies.

If rallies could enable political parties to form governments then the State would have to witness the formation of new ones every now and then.

He said in contrast to the pains taken by Congress leaders in mobilising people for over a fortnight, the former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda had organised a "Cauvery rally" under the auspices of the Karnataka Vikasa Vedike at Manasagangotri in Mysore in 1992.

Lakhs of people, much more than the number which participated in the Congress convention, had attended the programme which had been organised in the interests of the State.

Mr. Datta claimed that the people who attended the Congress convention were disgusted at the end of the day since they had come from far and near with a lot of expectations and there was hardly any message from the Congress leaders.

The meeting for which over Rs. 40 crore was reportedly spent lasted hardly 45 minutes even as a large number of people were still making their way to the Palace Grounds, the venue of the convention.

Referring to the speech of the former Deputy Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Mr. Datta it was rather strange that he spent all his time hitting out at Mr. Deve Gowda. Mr. Siddaramaiah had said that Mr. Deve Gowda could not think beyond his family in politics.

The dais from which he was speaking had as the backdrop the pictures of only the Indira Gandhi family.

"For his own survival in the Congress, Mr. Siddaramaiah should learn to stay clear from speaking on family politics fostered by the Indira Gandhi family. Only those who speak in favour of the family could remain in the Congress," Mr. Datta said.

He should also understand that internal democracy ceased to exist in the Congress after the 1969 Congress split and stalwarts like S. Nijalingappa walked out of it.

It was also not surprising to watch Mr. Siddaramaiah being put through the first lessons on Congress culture when he was directed to curtail his speech. Such things had never happened in the Janata Dal (S) for Mr. Siddaramaiah who had been given the pride of place. None dared to interfere whenever he addressed large gatherings.

On the performance of the Government, Mr. Datta said it was better than that of the S.M. Krishna Government and to a large extent even better than that of the Dharam Singh Government of which the Janata Dal (S) was a partner.

The performance of the present Government, which had completed 200 days in office, was quite evident and could be borne out by official records, he said.

The Government had stood by its commitment to development and the Congress was making all-out efforts to divert the attention of the people, he charged..

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