Bengaluru: “It’s my earnest appeal to the leaders of both Congress and JDS in Karnataka, to refrain from making any controversial statements in public,” said KPCC chief Dinesh Gundu Rao referring to the leaders of the ruling coalition government indulging in verbal duel.
Noting that a new secular and progressive government would emerge at the Centre on 23 May, he said it was important for those parties who want a non-BJP government to display unity and show the people that they can work together and deliver a stable government.
In a pre-poll deal, the Congress fielded candidates for 21 and JD(S) in seven seats in Karnataka. He further stated that decimation of JDS-Congress alliance is far from truth and brushed away exit polls predicting Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s return to power and that BJP almost sweep Karnataka in the just concluded Lok Sabha.
“Our foremost goal at this juncture is to help oust the BJP from power at the centre. Let us focus all our energies on that,” Rao said.
The KPCC chief along with K C Venugopal, Siddaramaiah, G Parameshwara and D K Shivakumar met Congress president Rahul Gandhi and discussed ways to strengthen the Congress party in Karnataka and the coalition government.
Backing Rao’s appeal, State JDS president A H Vishwanath, in Mysuru, said the coalition government will continue to work for the people under Kumaraswamy’s leadership for the full term as agreed by Rahul Gandhi and Deve Gowda after the assembly election gave a fractured verdict.
The recent verbal due between the leaders in the coalition parties began after a section of the Congress workers clamoured for Siddaramiah for CM’s post. Vishwanath had blamed Siddaramaiah for causing the rift between the coalition partners. Kumaraswamy further stoked controversy after he said Congress veteran Mallikarjun Kharge should have been made the chief minister long ago.