Siddaramaiah to work for strengthening Congress

Bangalore, July 27 (UNI) Former Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who had joined the Congress recently, today said he would strive to further strengthen the party to fight 'communal' and 'corrupt' forces in the state.

Talking to newspersons after obtaining the primary membership of the party at a simple function organised at the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee here, he denied that he had joined the party to garner any post.

Mr Siddaramaiah, who had quit his assembly seat won on a JD (S) ticket before joining the Congress, said he would seek re-election from the Chamundeshwari assembly constituency as a Congress nominee and exuded confidence that the people would bless him again.

Coming down heavily on former Prime Minister and JD (S) Supremo H D Deve Gowda for enabling the 'communal' forces to come to power, in the state, Mr Siddaramaiah alleged that the only agenda before the Kumaraswamy government now was to cling on to power and continue its corrupt activities.

He said within a short span of just five months of assuming office, the JD(S)-BJP coalition government had been embroiled in many a controversies. The people of the state were witnessing one of the worst-ever administration, he alleged.

KPCC President Mallikarjuna Kharge said his party would boycott the judicial probe ordered by the government to go into the mining activities since 2000 as it had no powers to prosecute the guilty.

The only forum that could dig out the truth and prosecute the offenders was the CBI and the party would launch a statewide agitation to pressurise the government to heed its demand for a CBI probe.

He said all the partymen have welcomed Party President Sonia Gandhi's decision to admit Mr Siddaramaiah in the party. His entry would help the party gain more strength to fight the ''communal and corrupt coalition government in the state,'' he added.

Mr Kharge informed that a party convention would be held in the city in the first week of September in which Ms Gandhi would be participating.

UNI MV RG GM MIR RK1719