Congress to raise Siddaramaiah's arrest issue in the Assembly

Mysore, Apr 1 (UNI) The Opposition Congress will raise the issue of arrest of former Deputy Chief Minister S Siddaramaiah in the Assembly tomorrow, Pradesh Congress Committee Chief Mallikarjun Kharge said today.

Talking to newspersons here, Mr Kharge alleged the arrest of senior Congress leader when he went to address a public meeting in his constituency village Jayapura, in the outskirts of the city, was ''unwarranted'' and done at the instance of the State government.

Imposition of prohibitory orders under section 144 was also uncalled for, he added.

''The matter would be raised in the Assembly tomorrow and the government would be taken to task since an elected representative was denied his rights. This act has proved that the JD-S BJP coalition government wanted to suppress the opposition parties in the State,'' he alleged.

Mr Kharge said that Mr Siddaramaiah withdrew dharna against his arrest due to the Eid festival and to avoid disturbance during PUC examination.

Alleging that the Coalition government had been harassing the Congress workers every since the byelections in the Chamundeswary constitutency by way of inquiries and intimidation, Mr Kharge warned that the Congress would resort to statewide agitation if the state government fails to stop such harassment.

Leader of Opposition in the Assembly N Dharam Singh, who was also present, said the CLP would meet and discuss future course of action against the ''unwarranted arrest'' of Mr Siddramiah. He allaged that law and order has completely collapsed in the State.

Mr Siddaramaiah accused the government of failing to provide protection to an elected representative. ''There were no violation of protocol. When the Health Department invited me to lay the foundation stone for construction of building for Primary Health Centre at Jayapura village in my constituency, the JD(S) workers in the name of the protocol disturbed the programme and indulged in violence. The police officers who were present instead of giving protection to me and arresting the agitators, arrested me along with Congress workers.'' UNI BSP MSP RR DB2019