Taking exception to the ongoing debate on whether a Dalit would become the Chief Minister of Karnataka, former union minister and floor leader of Congress in the Loksabha, Mallikarjun Kharge has sought to know whether the CM’s post was vacant.
“Has there been an advertisement seeking to fill up the post or is the CM’s post vacant now”, Mr. Kharge asked while replying to a query at a press conference here on Tuesday.
Mr. Kharge said that such debates would have been useful if the post was vacant. But such rumours or discussions now, when Chief Minister Siddaramaiah was doing a good work, was nothing but a conspiracy to mislead the Dalit community.
“It is Congress which has always supported the backward classes, Dalits and minorities and even given them the CM’s post. And it is the Congress party which can give the CM’s post to a Dalit. But a discussion on the issue now when there is no such proposal before the high command of the party is nothing but a conspiracy to destabilise the State Government”, he said.
Mr. Kharge said he would appeal to the Dalit community to not be misled by such ploys of vested interests to destabilise the government.
He said the Prime Minister and BJP national president should focus on the ‘acche din’ promise rather than reiterating to make the country ‘Congress-Free’, which was not at all possible.
Mr. Kharge also said that Congress had joined hands with other opposition parties in posing collective opposition to NDA government’s anti-people policies, which will continue.
