The Hindu : Front Page : M.P. Prakash gets good response

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Thursday, Nov 29, 2007
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M.P. Prakash gets good response

Special Correspondent

16 MLAs attend the meeting, five reportedly offered support

BANGALORE: A meeting of a “like-minded” group of legislators of the Janata Dal (Secular) led by the former Deputy Chief Minister M.P. Prakash was held here on Wednesday. The gathering, united in its opposition to the party leadership, put off a decision on its next course of action by eight days.

In all, 19 legislators, including 16 MLAs, attended the meeting and five other MLAs were said to have conveyed that they could not be present because of other engagements. The notable legislators who were present on Wednesday were the former Minister N. Cheluvarayaswamy, Sandur MLA Santosh Lad and Magadi MLA H.C. Balakrishna, all once close confidants of the former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy. They were instrumental in Mr. Kumaraswamy breaking away from his father and former Prime Minister, H.D. Deve Gowda, to finalise an agreement with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in January 2006.

Most other legislators present at the meeting were those who had extended support to Mr. Prakash recently to finalise an agreement with the Congress. All of them are from the Lingayat community and regard Mr. Prakash as their leader. Earlier in the day, the party MP from Kozhikode in Kerala, M.P. Veerendra Kumar, called on Mr. Prakash, apparently to extend his solidarity.

Mr. Prakash told presspersons later that all the legislators and party leaders who attended the meeting would abstain from the executive committee meeting of the JD(S) called on Thursday. “It will turn out to be more of a public meeting with all and sundry in the party having been invited. Further, there is no executive committee in the JD(Scular) and most of the appointments in the party are on an ad hoc basis. With any fruitful discussion unlikely, why should we attend the meeting,” Mr. Prakash said.

Another meeting of these legislators and leaders would be held next week, followed by a major public meeting by the end of December. All these should not be construed as anti-party activities. This is a ‘save party’ activity and not an attempt to split the party.”

The other legislators who attended the meeting on Wednesday were H.S. Mahadeva Prasad, B.C. Patil, K.N. Rajanna, Amaregouda Bayyapur, Vijayalakshmi Bandisidde Gowda, Alangur Srinivas, Raju Gowda, Balaraj, Balakrishna, N. Suryanarayan Reddy, Sharana Basappa Darshanapur, H. Anjaneya, and Nagamani Nage Gowda (all MLAs).

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