Moily bats for MLA Vasu on Siddaramaiah turf

Former chief minister M Veerappa Moily made good use of his visit to the city, ahead of the launch of the Congress party manifesto, to bat for the re-election of his confidante MLA Vasu in the upcoming Assembly polls from Chamaraja constituency.

While listing out the works executed in the Chamaraja Assembly constituency of Mysuru city and claiming it to be a model for the rest of the 223 segments in the state, he drew an inference that Vasu deserves a re-election.

By praising the achievements of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, a native of the district, for his achievements so far, Moily tried to appease Siddaramaiah, who does not have a good equation with Vasu due to various reasons. In blaming a former VC of the Karnataka State Open University for blurring the future of thousands of students of the KSOU, he was trying to contest the JD(S) candidature of K S Rangappa.

Vasu, who was first elected as corporator and then Mayor, was patient before he got a Congress ticket to contest the Assembly polls in 1999 and 2008. Finally, he was elected in the 2014 polls. Earlier, while Moily was the chief minister (1992-1994), he served him as his political secretary.

Since the induction of Siddaramaiah into the Congress, he did not enjoy good equation with him. Of late, as Bhagyavathi, a corporator under Vasu's Assembly constituency, took the support of the JD(S) and the BJP to become Mayor, Siddaramaiah is suspicious of Vasu. Besides, Siddaramaiah's confidante D Dhruvakumar, who is now Chairman of MUDA, is an aspirant of the Congress ticket in place of Vasu.

Moily said that since Vasu became MLA, Rs 1,627 crore has been spent in his constituency on colleges, hostels, hospitals and other development works. "He has strived for the development of Mysuru as corporator, the mayor and even without any power, by persuading the ministers and chief ministers to divert many projects and proposals to the city," he said.

"Siddaramaiah has fulfilled almost 98% or even 100% of the promises made in the election manifesto of 2014. Due to his efforts, Karnataka has emerged as the number one state in the country in various fields. The people can expect more from Siddaramaiah if he becomes the CM for a second term," he said.

KSOU row

"When I was the CM, I established the KSOU by passing an Act. During the term of a particular VC (without taking the name of Rangappa), due to large-scale irregularities, the students are suffering. Due to some lapses in the investigation process, the guilty have not been punished so far. But the guilty will be punished once the next Congress government is formed again this year," he said.

"Already, I have written a letter to Union Human Resource Development Minister Prakash Javadekar to revive the KSOU. After the elections, the issue will be pursued to take it to a logical end in the interest of the students," he said.