Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has criticised BJP leaders of lying to the people of the State over their claims of having resolved the Mahadayi issue. He was speaking with presspersons at Gokak on Thursday.
State BJP president B.S. Yeddyurappa has claimed that he has urged the Chief Ministers of Goa and Maharashtra to agree to sharing Mahadayi river waters with Karnataka. This is nothing but an attempt to lie to the public, Mr. Siddaramaiah said.
“Who is Mr. Yeddyurappa to claim to have resolved the issue? What authority does he have to end it? The only person who can resolve the issue is the Prime Minister. Obviously, Mr. Yeddyurappa is not the Prime Minister. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has also promised the people of Hubballi-Dharwad of ending the river water sharing issue soon. Who is Mr. Adityanath to speak of ending an inter-state dispute? As the Chief Minister of a State in the federation, he has no Constitutional authority to resolve a dispute between three other States,” the Chief Minister said.
“It is not enough for the State BJP leaders to claim that they have held a meeting with Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar as per the instructions of BJP national president Amit Shah. Mr. Parrikar is yet to make any statements about the issue. He should not only give statements in favour of the Mahadayi issue, but also file a no- objection application before the Mahadayi river water tribunal. This only means that the BJP’s statements are just false claims by leaders like Mr. Yeddyurappa only to gain the goodwill of the people before elections,” Mr. Siddaramaiah said.
Gujarat results
Later, speaking at a party workers’ meeting in Gokak, the Chief Minister attributed the loss of the Congress in Gujarat elections to lack of a strong party network. “We would have won Gujarat if the Congress had a strong network. If we had won, it would have been the first gift by party workers to the AICC president Rahul Gandhi. But that didn’t happen. Prime Minister Modi and other BJP leaders went around spreading lies. However, despite all this, Congress gave a good fight and won a respectable tally of 80. But we have no such problems in Karnataka. We will achieve success in the elections and present it to Rahul Gandhi as his first major success after becoming the party president,” Mr. Siddaramaiah said.
