Congress to act on its leaders who speak against party

Buoyed by the victories in the recent byelections to the Assembly from Nanjangud and Gundlupet seats, the state Congress has decided to initiate disciplinary action against its members including seniors who shoot their mouth off about party affairs.

Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) working president Dinesh Gundu Rao, who on Saturday met the party high command in New Delhi, told reporters in Bengaluru on Sunday that the state unit will have no option but to take action against seniors who continued to publicly speak against the party.

Rao said the Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, with who whom he, KPCC president G Parameshwara and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had an interaction in New Delhi on Saturday, had indicated that the time had come to take action.

“One senior leader from Mangaluru went to the extent of holding press conferences almost on a daily basis to say that the Congress will not win the bypolls in Gundlupet and Nanjangud constituencies. This severely embarrassed the party,” Rao said without naming anybody. It was apparent that he was referring to former Union minister B Janardhan Poojary.

“There are three to four such leaders. We will have to take action if they continue to speak against the party in public,” Rao said. Former union minister C K Jaffer Sharief had recently embarrassed the party by writing to Prime Minister Narendra Modi backing RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat for the post of the President of India. Another former Union Minister M V Rajasekharan had showered praise on Modi and congratulated him for the BJP’s success in the recent Assembly polls in Uttar Pradesh and other states. Former Mysore MP A H Vishwanth has publicly criticised Siddaramaiah several times.