Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)
Bengaluru, Dec 6: State Congress affairs in-charge, K C Venugopal, confessed that all is not well between Karnataka chief minister (CM), Siddaramaiah, and Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president, G Parameshwar.
Among strong indications that ego of the two leaders, Siddaramaiah and Parameshwar, is coming in the way of holding the election campaign together, Venugopal, who held meetings with important leaders on Tuesday, said that there are minor issues between these two leaders.
Venugopal clarified that Parameshwar will not be part of the Yatra being organized by Siddaramaiah-led government. At the same time, the chief minister will participate in electioneering programmes being chalked out by the party, he added.
Parameshwar, Siddaramaiah
The problem arises on account of the fact that Parameshwar has been insisting that his party will not toe the line of other parties and will not be organizing Yatras like them. Siddaramaiah, at the same time, has planned to make people aware of the achievements of his government. He will be undertaking tour of various districts for proper implementation of government programmes for a month commencing on December 13. There is a notion that Siddaramaiah has been trying to project himself as the only undisputed leader by sidelining the party through this tour.
An idea to hold party conventions at the rate of one for each district on the days on which Siddaramaiah will be holding government programmes there separately was placed before the CM. But it is said that the CM was not agreeable to this suggestion as he feels that visits to constituencies to initiate government schemes should not be used as party forums. He has said that he will be undertaking 'Janasheeravada Yatra' for the party separately during March next year;. The current tour of the CM will begin on December 13 at Basavakalyana and end on January 13 in Bengaluru rural district. The current tour will be mainly aimed at laying foundation stones and inaugurating different government schemes and programmes.
During his meetings on Tuesday, Venugopal is said to have patted women's Congress activists for their good work and taken office bearers of youth Congress unit to task for their lackadaisical approach. He wanted to know from them how many protests they had organized against the central government.
At the same time, energy minister, D K Shivakumar, said that the party does not want to use government programmes for the benefit of the party and that the high command had asked the CM to undertake tour to popularize government programme now. He said that the party will be organizing different programmes in all the constituencies, and that there is no confusion or differences.