Cong furious, CM jubilant

Opposition Congress led by its leader Siddaramaiah on Thursday staged a dharna in front of Kengal Hanumantaiah statue in Vidhana Soudha, protesting Speaker K G Bopaiah’s decision to reject its notice seeking to move an adjournment motion.

The Congress members expressed their anguish against the Speaker and termed his decision as the murder of democracy. They shouted slogans against Bopaiah and Chief Minister Yeddyurappa, who won a trust vote in the House soon after the Opposition party staged a walk-out.

A jubilant Yeddyurappa accused the Opposition of insulting the people who elected them. The people will not tolerate such behaviour, he stated addressing a press conference soon after winning the trust vote.

Taking recourse to cricket analogy, Yeddyurappa likened the people to the third umpire whose decision was final in the Umpire Decision Review System. he said the “third umpire” had reposed faith in the BJP in various elections held in the last three years.

An upset Siddaramaiah had some hard words for the Speaker who he charged with bulldozing the Opposition. “Bopaiah has become an agent of the BJP. He is unfit to be in the post. Opposition parties cannot expect proceedings in the House to be fair as long as he continues in the office. Even the Supreme Court has passed strictures on him for acting partisan,” he stated.

The Speaker rejected the notice for seeking adjournment motion without allowing the Opposition to make a preliminary submission, just to ensure that Yeddyurappa proved his majority in the House, Siddaramaiah alleged.

Nobody had raised any doubt over the majority enjoyed by the Chief Minister in the House. The Opposition only wanted to raise the issue of Supreme Court indicting the Chief Minister and Bopaiah on the MLAs’ disqualification case, he added.

Siddaramaiah said Congress will continue to protest until both Bopaiah and Yeddyurappa resigned from their posts in the wake of strictures passed by the Supreme Court on them. The intention behind staging the protest is to protect the dignity of the Assembly. Never in the history of Karnataka, a Speaker was indicted by any court, he said.

Cong to bond with grassroots workers

The Congress on Thursday announced that it would launch a two-month
programme titled ‘Congress Nadige - Janara Balige’ from June 15 to mingle with grass-roots level workers in all the 5,696 gram panchayats and to bridge the gap between the party workers and the leaders.