Congress plans 'yatra' to drum up support in Karnataka

This Congress party is planning to launch Nadarakshana Yatra in November, on the lines of ‘Panchajanya’ yatra by SM Krishna in 1999, as part of its strategy to return to power in the state.

This was announced by party president G Parameshwar on Wednesday while speaking to reporters on the sidelines of KPCC general body meeting at Palace Grounds here.

He said the yatra will touch every taluk and assembly constituency of the state. The achievements of the Congress-led UPA government at the centre and previous Congress regimes in the state will be communicated to the people.

Parameshwar further said that the march will be joined by union ministers from Karnataka, including External Affairs minister SM Krishna on Saturdays and Sundays, as they will be busy on other days. He maintained that Congress will face the state assembly election on its own clearly and rejected possibility of any alliance with JD (S).

The Congress leader  said the party delegation will be meeting prime minister soon to brief him on the Cauvery issue. “The state government representatives, including the chief minister, should not have walked out of the Cauvery River Authority (CRA) meeting. They should they have sat through the session and pressed for distress formula. Now, the advocates representing Karnataka will face problems in effectively arguing the case in the Supreme Court,” he explained.

Missing leaders
AICC general secretary in charge of party affairs in the state Madhusudhan Mistri gave the meeting a miss. Sources explained that Mistri, who was in the city a day ago, deliberately remained stayed away as he expected being cornered by senior Congress leaders belonging to different camps, other than Parameshwar.

The Union ministers from the state also remained absent and thereby diminished the significance of the meeting. Opposition leaders in legislative assembly and legislative council, Siddaramaiah and SR Patil respectively had to shore up the show.

Shamanur Shivashankarappa, the senior leader, who had locked horns with Parameshwar, arrived late with his supporters, mainly Lingayats. They also left the place by noon, giving clear indication that all was not well. Former union minister Jaffer Sharief also turned up late.

6 resolutions
The general body meeting convened by KPCC adopted six resolutions, including supporting the state government on the issue of Cauvery water dispute. The other resolutions pertain to the failure of BJP government in handling drought in the state.

The meeting thanked union government for providing special status to Hyderabad-Karnataka region. They pointed out that when NDA was in power it had rejected the proposal from then chief minister SM Krishna.

It was decided to exert pressure on the government to take up irrigation projects to fully utilise Krishna river water. The meeting also condemned the failure of BJP government in solving the problems of Bangalore city.