Expressing unhappiness over Janata Dal (Secular) president H.D. Deve Gowda’s remarks on the sustainability of Congress-JD(S) coalition government in Karnataka, veteran Congress leader M. Mallikarjun Kharge said that none [in the Congress and the JD(S)] should make statements that could undermine the government. He was speaking to mediapersons here on Monday.
Mr. Gowda had, on Friday, said that midterm poll for the Assembly was imminent , hinting at the collapse of the Congress-JD(S) government, thanks to the intensified conflicts between the coalition partners.
When asked about the Congress Legislative Party leader Siddaramaiah reportedly putting pressure on the Congress high command to withdraw from the coalition as he strongly felt that the continuation of the alliance would further weaken the party and damage its prospects, Mr. Kharge said that the fate of State government would finally be decided by the Congress high command.
“First of all, I don’t want to respond to Mr. Deve Gowda’s statement. Forming the coalition government in the State was a collective decision involving top brass of both the partners. We should strive to strengthen the coalition. None [in Congress and JD(S)] should undermine the coalition government by either talking of midterm polls or putting pressure on the leadership to withdraw from the alliance. Such statements of coalition leaders would help only in weakening the alliance government. The coalition is a collective decision and we should collectively strive to strengthen it. One should approach the high command if one has any discontentment on the coalition government. Congress high command has clearly directed to go ahead with the coalition and if it wants to change its stand, it will take a suitable decision,” he said.
To a question on the BJP’s call for ‘one nation and one election’, Mr. Kharge said that those preaching ‘one nation – one election’ had conducted the Lok Sabha election in seven phases.
“They [BJP] would simply do what they feel is beneficial to them,” he said, adding that conducting elections throughout the country at a time was impossible in the federal system.
