Congmen told to stop infighting

With internal bickering continuing unabated in the State Congress, the party high command on Sunday gave a stern warning to the warring factions and asked them to shun differences in the interest of the party.

AICC secretary in charge of Karnataka, Shantaram Naik, who was in Bangalore to take stock of the party affairs ahead of the polls, told reporters that a message has been delivered loud and clear to the State leaders that there should be unity.

“There is no need to give any advice to the leaders here. The message has been delivered loud and clear to them. There should be unity to fight the communal forces in this election. I believe the message has reached each and every leader,” he stated in reply to a query on internal bickering in the State unit.

The State unit of the Congress is battling to douse factional wars in many constituencies including Mandya, Bangalore Central, Chitradurga and Shimoga. Besides, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and KPCC chief Parameshwara, who have differences on various issues, have been campaigning separately in the State. Naik, however, defended the party and said internal bickering was common in all political parties.

“It (bickering) is actually minimum this time. As the polling day nears, it will diminish further. The chief minister and the PCC chief have started moving together. They have taken up campaigning across the State,” he added.

He said a number of social welfare schemes being implemented by the Siddaramaiah government will benefit the party in the polls. At the same time, the party will educate people on number of legislations enacted by the UPA-II to fight corruption.

More importantly, the party will tell people, especially youth, that it was RSS thinking and ideology that killed Mahatma Gandhi, he added. There is a need for putting up an united fight against communal forces. The JD(S) is also a secular party, but they go astray sometimes. It must realise this in the interest of the nation, Naik said.

He also slammed the BJP’s Bangalore South candidate Ananth Kumar, who has made the Aadhaar project an election issue, saying that the BJP leader is trying to take the country back to bullock cart age.