Karnataka - Gulbarga   

Praja Rajyam woos Siddaramaiah

GULBARGA: The Praja Rajyam Party, the political outfit floated by Telugu actor Chiranjeevi has invited the former Deputy Chief Minister and Congress leader Siddaramaiah to join the party.

Addressing presspersons here on Sunday, the former KPSC member A. Mukdappa, a close associate of Mr. Siddaramaiah, said that Mr. Chiranjeevi had spoken to Mr. Siddaramaiah over phone. “However, Mr. Siddaramaiah has not responded to the invitation so far.”

Defending his action of asking voters in the recently concluded byelections to the eight Assembly constituencies in the State to vote for the Bharatiya Janata Party, Mr. Mukdappa said that this was because of the fact that the followers of Mr. Siddaramaiah were peeved by the way the Congress treated their leader and neglected him.

He said that the followers of Mr. Siddaramaiah and his close associates were pressuring Mr. Siddaramaiah to float a regional party to bring the backward classes under one umbrella and fight the elections in alliance with the BJP.

He said that the south Indian States lacked a powerful backward class movement and there was a need for bringing together all the backward classes under one platform and Mr. Siddaramaiah should take a lead in this regard.

Mr. Mukdappa said that he had discussed the proposal to float a regional party with other associates of Mr. Siddaramaiah, including the former Union Minister C.M. Ibrahim and the former Minister C. Mahadevappa and others.

“This issue was also discussed with Mr. Siddaramaiah, but he had not responded to the demand.”

Earlier, releasing the Monthly magazine Samaste in the city, Mr. Mukdappa said there was polarisation of political parties on the lines of the caste and the results of the byelections to the eight Assembly constituencies have proved this.

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