Date:06/11/2007 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2007/11/06/stories/2007110650200100.htm

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‘Hold elections to save people from communal elements’

Special Correspondent

Congress criticises JD(S), BJP for ‘misrule’, ‘inefficient handling of finances’

— Photo: K. Murali Kumar

PEOPLE’S CAUSE: Congress leaders B. Janardhana Poojary (left), M. Mallikarjun Kharge, N. Dharam Singh, H.K. Patil, Muniyappa and Rehman Khan at a public meeting in Bangalore on Monday.

BANGALORE: A galaxy of senior Congress leaders on Monday demanded that the Union Government and Governor Rameshwar Thakur dissolve the lower House in the State and hold elections to save the people from the “communal” Bharatiya Janata Party leaders in the remaining 19-month term of the 12th Assembly.

Addressing Janandolana, a public meeting organised by the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC), the party stalwarts vied with one another to criticise the Janata Dal (S) and the BJP for the “misrule”, “corruption”, “inefficient handling” of finances and more than all, the “lack of concern” for the poor and the calamity-stricken people in north Karnataka region.

KPCC president M. Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly N. Dharam Singh, Union Minister of State for Labour Oscar Fernandes and MP B. Janardhan Poojary alleged that the coalition leaders were worried about power than anything else. All India Congress Committee secretary Praveen Dawar said that the Congress had regained its strength and would come back to power if elections were held.

The former Deputy Chief Minister, Siddaramaiah, recalled the allegation of the former Chief Minister, H.D. Kumaraswamy, who had said that the BJP leader B.S. Yeddyurappa had “destroyed” the finances of the State in the last 20 months. Why was Mr. Kumaraswamy now ready to install Mr. Yeddyurappa as Chief Minister? he asked. He demanded a White Paper on the status of the programmes that he had announced without earmarking funds for them. These programmes required Rs. 4,500 crore, he added.

Mr. Kharge said that the two parties had brought down the image of politicians in the State as people were losing faith in political parties. He said that the Janata Dal (S) and the BJP had betrayed each other but were now trying to pass the buck to the Congress saying that it was stopping them from coming to power. Mr. Dharam Singh alleged that administration had collapsed in the State due to the quarrels between the two parties. The interests of the people had been neglected during the rule of the coalition Government.

Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council H.K. Patil took the BJP leaders to task for passing unfounded remarks against the Congress leaders. Mr. Patil said that it was the late Rajiv Gandhi who announced elections to the Assam Assembly and an Opposition party enjoyed power later. It was well known that Congress president Sonia Gandhi sacrificed the post of Prime Minister when both the Congress and the coalition partners offered it to her. It should be contrasted with that of the power-hungry leaders of the BJP, he added.

The former Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister, D.B. Chandre Gowda, said that the Governor could have directly recommended dissolution of the Assembly as, according to him, the same party could not be allowed to form an alternative government. He cautioned the party workers attributing the meteoric rise of the BJP, which had grown from four seats to 79 in the State, to its political strategy which was to inflame communal passions. That party wanted to communalise south India by taking up Datta Peetha and Ramar Sethu issues.