Senior Congress leaders on Saturday announced that there was no question of G. Parameshwara or Siddaramaiah relinquishing their posts as Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president and Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly respectively, till after the Assembly elections.
They were briefing presspersons after a marathon 35-member coordination committee meeting chaired by its Chairman and AICC general secretary Madhusudhan Mistry, who is also State in charge.
The three leaders made it clear that their statement was a message to all those wanting a change in the KPCC leadership, including the Lingayat MLAs led by senior leader Shamanur Shivashankarappa. Mr. Mistry, however, chose not to address media persons.
Mr. Shivashankarappa, who led a delegation to the party high command recently, demanded that he should be made president of the KPCC, promising that the Lingayat leaders would ensure victory to the party in the next Assembly elections. He told the party that none of the Lingayat leaders would make any claims for the post of Chief Minister, if the party won the elections.
Both Dr. Parameshwara and Mr. Siddaramaiah said the elections would be conducted under a collective leadership and not under a single leader, including External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna. Among the absentees in the meeting were Mr. Krishna and the former Railway Minister C.K. Jaffer Sharief.
Dr. Parameshwara said the Congress would contest the elections alone. Congress, being a secular party, would consolidate its vote base among the minorities, Dalits and other vulnerable sections, though it did not believe in division of votes on caste lines.
Cross-voting
On the action to be taken against those who cross-voted in the recent Legislative Council elections, the two leaders said the names of MLAs who had violated the party whip were not known and even the V.R. Sudarshan Committee had not made any reference to them. The committee had said it would be made known to the party high command, which may even consider denying ticket to them in the next elections, they added. Mr. Siddaramaiah said the committee had indicted Dr. Parameshwara, Mr. Mistry and himself for lack of coordination leading to the defeat of candidate Iqbal Ahmed Saradagi. Both leaders said the party regretted it and would apologise to the minorities, but not individually. Mr. Siddaramaiah ruled out taking moral responsibility for the lapse as made out by the committee.
