Cong will face polls under collective leadership: Kharge

Says high command will decide on CM if party retains power

Senior Congress leader Mallikarjun Kharge on Sunday said the party will face the 2018 Assembly elections under a collective leadership.

Kharge told reporters who met him in Bengaluru that if the party retains power in the elections, then the next chief minister will be decided by the Congress high command.

Kharge’s statements come at a time when Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has been repeatedly stating that the 2018 elections will be fought under his leadership. Siddaramaiah had reiterated the statement at a press conference to mark the completion of the fourth year of his government last week. Siddaramaiah, however, retracted another statement that he will continue as chief minister for a second term.

On his name doing the rounds for the post of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president, Kharge said, “I have neither applied for the post nor have I sought it. It is for the high command to decide.”

He said unlike the BJP, there is internal democracy in the Congress. “In the BJP, everything is decided by Narendra Modi. The Congress has a high command to decide all party issues,” he said.

Kharge said there has been no peace in the country since NDA came to power at the Centre. While crude oil prices have fallen in the international market, the Centre has not reduced the prices of petrol and diesel, he added.


HDK attacks state govt

Elsewhere in Bengaluru, JD(S) state president H D Kumaraswamy trained his guns on the state government charging it with looting the state. “The proposal to build a tunnel between Chalukya Circle and Hebbal in Bengaluru was first mooted during my tenure as chief minister at an estimated cost of Rs 800 crore. The Congress government is now trying to implement the same project at a cost of Rs 3,500 crore,” he claimed.

He charged that the police have been masquerading as robbers.  He claimed that the police had clandestinely “seized” Rs 2.5 crore cash from a person near Mysuru recently. “As soon as news about the incident leaked, the police said only Rs 40 lakh had been seized,” he charged.

Politicians wooing communities

JD(S) state president H D Kumaraswamy called on Bengaluru Brahmana Mahasabha president Prakash Iyengar in Malleswaram on Sunday. Kumaraswamy said he had come to congratulate Iyengar, who took over as president of the forum recently.