Council polls: AIPJD not to follow JD (S) whip

Mysore, May 31 (UNI) Former Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister and All India Progressive Janata Dal (AIPJD) leader Siddaramaiah today announced that his party would take its own decision on voting in the elections to the Legislative Council tomorrow.

Speaking to newspersons here, he said the whip issued by the Janata Dal (S) to its MLAs would not affect anything, eventhough the AIPJD was technically part of the JD (S) in the state Assembly.

Stating that issuing a whip itself was illegal and no legislator could be questioned as the secret ballot system would be followed in tomorrow's elections, he said a whip could be issued only when the elections were held inside the Assembly.

Referring to the notice issued by Speaker Krishna to the MLAs, Mr Siddaramaiah said he had not seen it yet.

Criticising the attitude of former Prime Minister and JD (S) supremo H D Deve Gowda, he alleged that he was trying to divide the BJP taking advantage of the infighting in that party.

On providing farms loans at an interest rate of four per cent through the cooperative banks, he said the government should not have a ceiling on loans.

Mr Siddaramaiah criticised the State Government for not inviting elected representatives from the Cauvery basin areas for the meeting held to discuss the Cauvery water dispute and said it should not file its report to the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal without getting the views of these MLAs.

He welcomed the move of the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre to reserve 27 per cent of the seats for Other Backward Classes in higher education and urged it to implement the quota from this year itself.

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