Moily is out of Cong CM's race, sees good chance for party

Bangalore, April 12: At least one apirant has cleared the field for others to fight it out. Former chief minister and Union Petroleum Minister M Veerappa Moily has said that he was not in the race for the chief ministership of

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Congress has "excellent" chances of coming to power after the next month's Karnataka Assembly elections Moily said today. This is the reason why many want to be chief minister, like party unit chief G Parmeshwar, leader of opposition Siddaramaiah, Union Labour Minister Mallikarjun Kharge and so on.

At least Moily is not in the contest to make it difficult for the party even in the elections. With so many leaders, the Congress will find it difficult to avoid infighting. The infighting is going to affect the final tally and its overall standing in the general elections.

As Moily says the party's chances are excellent but can be spoiled by the leaders themselves. It will be good for the Congress if most of the leaders declare their intent now, so that elections can be fought not within but against the opposition.

Ruling out himself from the race of chief ministership, Moily said his role would be to ensure the party's victory.
"I am not an aspirant for chief ministership," he said today.

On the heartburn among a section of ticket aspirants in Congress, Moily said there was a "problem of plenty" in his party. "But we look at it as an advantage which BJP and JDS do not have," he said, adding that there were no rebels.

Moily told reporters that there was "no question" of BJP returning to power.

To repeated BJP's taunts to Congress to name its chief ministerial candidate, Moily said his party did not believe in projecting anyone. "They (BJP) announce their captain off and on. That is why they collapsed," Moily said.

Moily also said there was no question of post-electoral alignment either with JDS led by former Prime Minister H D Devegowda or Karnataka Janatha Paksha headed by former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa, as Congress was confident of doing well on its own.

OneIndia News