The Congress high command has given the green signal for three prominent leaders to be admitted into the State unit of party.
The leaders who will be joining Congress are former Union Minister D K Taradevi Siddarth from Chikamagalur district, former MP from Belgaum S B Sidnal, and former Minister Jayaprakash Hegde.
While it is a homecoming for both Taradevi and Sidnal, it is new territory for Hegde.
Taradevi, who was a Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare in the P V Narasimha Rao Government, had unsuccessfully contested on a JD(S) ticket in the 2004 elections. Sidnal, four-time Lok Sabha MP from Belgaum, had contested unsuccessfully on a Kannada Nadu ticket in the previous Lok Sabha elections.
Hegde, who was Minister of State for Ports and Fisheries in both the H D Deve Gowda and J H Patel governments, had left the Janata Dal after its split. He won the Brahmavar Assembly seat in Dakshina Kannada district as an independent candidate in 1999, as well as in 2004.
Making an announcement in this regard at a media conference on Tuesday, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee President Mallikarjun Kharge claimed that these leaders have agreed to join the party unconditionally.
To a query, Kharge said he hoped that senior Congress leader M Mahadevu would not take the “hasty” decision of leaving the party. “All along he has been a Congressman. AICC General Secretary Prithviraj Chauhan has spoken to him. Hope he will work for the victory of the party,” he added.
The Congress Chief thanked the Governor and his advisors for keeping the Capital Value System (CVS) in abeyance, following the representation made by their party.
BJP’s ‘poll stunts’
Kharge termed as an “election stunt” the BJP leaders’ statement at a rally at Chitradurga, that their party was pro-Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
“How can a party which believes in the chatur-varna system and which is opposed to all progressive measures including the enactment of Land Reforms Act, now call itself a champion of SC/STs?. It is nothing but an election stunt”, Mallikarjun Kharge remarked.
On the untimely rains causing heavy damage in some parts, Kharge said that the Governor had been asked to request the Centre to send a team for assessment of losses.