Karnataka

Deshmukh heaps praise on Deshpande, Shivakumar

— Photo: K. Murali Kumar

COURTESY CALL: Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh (left) with the former Governor of that State S.M. Krishna in Bangalore on Tuesday.

BANGALORE. Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh on Tuesday commended the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee under its new president R.V. Deshpande and working president D.K. Shivakumar for the good beginning by mobilising leaders and workers and holding meetings at various levels to rejuvenate the organisation and prepare it to face the byelections to the eight Assembly segments and also the Lok Sabha elections.

Mr. Deshmukh, who was on a private visit to the State, told presspersons at the residence of the former Chief Minister S.M. Krishna here that the new team of KPCC was doing a wonderful job and there was mobility in the State unit after they took over.

Asked why he was meeting Mr. Krishna, the Maharashtra Chief Minister said he could not meet him after he relinquished the office of the Governor of his State and he was missing him very much. However, he said that Mr. Krishna was a Member of Parliament and he wished him success.

Asked whether the party was making preparations for the elections, Mr. Deshmukh said it was going on briskly.

He said the party had been energised throughout the country and even in Maharashtra, president and working president had been appointed to the party unit.

When reminded that Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha L.K. Advani, who was commenting on the Malegaon blast case, had opined that terrorist was a terrorist and he or she had no religion, Mr. Deshmukh said the Congress had been telling the same thing.

He said the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was supporting Sadhvi Pragya Singh, an accused in the blast case keeping its eyes on the Hindu votes. He added that the Congress restrained itself from taking such a course.

On the Margaret Alva episode, Mr. Krishna said that indiscipline could not be brushed away. He said that the high command had given a test dose to one person, which was enough to alert others and it showed that it was competent to act. It was not important whether an inquiry was conducted to find the veracity of her allegations that money was taken for giving the party ticket to candidates in the recent Assembly elections.

Asked why the then KPCC president M. Mallikarjuna Kharge was rewarded with the post of the Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly, even though he had alleged that the party leaders themselves worked against the candidates and defeated them, Mr. Krishna said it was a political statement in general terms. Mr. Kharge had not made any charges against the party leaders, he said.

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