Faced with a daunting task of guarding party MLAs from being poached by the ruling BJP, newly-appointed Karnataka Congress chief G Parameshwara today exuded confidence, saying no legislator would leave the party.
“We can say with confidence that none will leave the party. Our MLAs have confidence that whatever the problems they have, will be redressed,” Parameshwara, who was with Congress leader Siddaramaiah, told reporters.
Parameshwara’s comment came in the backdrop of speculations that some Congress MLAs were being lured by BJP. The Congress president met Siddaramaiah and said he would focus attention on carrying all party workers with him and gear up the party for upcoming zilla and taluk panchayat elections likely to be held by this year end.
An action plan would be drawn up to fight the coming elections and also against the BJP government, which he branded as “inefficient, corrupt and anti-development”. He said he would also ask the party high command to appoint executive committee and other office-bearers to the state unit before the panchayat polls.
Meanwhile Siddaramaiah, who has been holding parleys with party MLAs and persuading them not to quit also expressed optimism that there would be no more desertions by legislators.
Meanwhile, the outgoing KPCC President R V Deshpande today said the most herculean task he faced during his tenure was to brave the “money power” of the ruling BJP in the last two years in the state.
“It was a mixed bag of luck for me in the last 25 months as KPCC chief as Congress tasted a string of electoral defeats in the assembly by-polls along with some success,” he told reporters here, a day after the party high command appointed senior leader G Parameshwara to succeed him.
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“It was difficult to face the money power of BJP, the government of which also topped the list in corruption. With the cooperation of all leaders and the party high command, I have done my best in these two years,” Deshpande said. He welcomed the appointment of former CWC member Parameshwara who, he said, has vast administrative experience and hoped the party’s fortunes would revive and it would return to power under his stewardship.
Assembly elections are due in 2013 in Karnataka which has been haunted by political instability in the wake of repeated internal fissures faced by ruling BJP. Defending the choice of Parameshwara, a Dalit, to lead the party, Deshpande said appointments in Congress are not made on the basis of caste.
Deshpande was a key part of the recent 320-km “Bellary Chalo Padayatra” organised by the Congress to highlight illegal mining in the state.