Pics: Joshwa D'Souza
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (JD)

Mangaluru, Jul 14: In a brazen attack on chief minister Siddaramaiah, fellow Congress party leader Janardhan Poojary on Thursday July 14 demanded the CM's resignation over the suicide of DySP M K Ganapati, stating that people of Karnataka were unhappy with his administration.

Addressing a press meet here, Poojary addressed Siddaramaiah and said, "The people of this state are fed up with you, and with the way you are handling M K Ganapati's case. In a survey conducted by an electronic media, 99 percent of the people have shown dissatisfaction with you, and hence you must resign from your post.

"When a person is about to die, he does not cook up stories. The world has seen the video in which M K Ganapati named minister K J George, officers Pranab Mohanty and A M Prasad as being responsible for his death. Chief minister, when three names are in the dying declaration, why are you not registering FIR against them? Why are you trying to protect them?" he questioned.

"Is a person more important to you (Siddaramaiah) than your party? Protests are happening in every district and people are fed up with you. It is also shameful that you are also using the electronic media to taint the image of Ganapati's wife Pavana. You did not register her statement in the inquest report, instead you took his brother's and father's statements. It is your duty to register the spouse's statement when she is alive. As a lawyer, you are well aware of it. You are protecting K J George in a very shameless manner.

"As the people have cast their votes against you in the SMS campaign, you must step down from the CM's chair. If you have any sort of belief in the party and its principles, you must step down and resign," he demanded.

"There are many leaders in the party who can become the chief minister. From Gowda caste, along with S M Krishna there is D K Shivakumar, from SC community there are Dr Parameshwara and Mallikarjuna Kharge, from ST community there is Ugrappa, from Lingayats there are S R Patil and H K Patil, and like these there are many leaders. During the recent reshuffle of the cabinet, Siddaramaiah sacked Vinay Kumar Sorake for no reason. Siddaramaiah has been the CM for three years, now it is time to resign.

"Let the MLAs decide and cast their votes to elect their leader. Let it not be alleged later that even though people rejected you (Siddaramaiah), you continued to be the CM," he added.

Urging the Congress high command to step in, Poojary said, "If Siddaramaiah does not resign, I urge the party high command to sack him and make someone else the chief minister. The high command must think about the party's survival. The country needs Congress, this is the party that brought Independence to the nation."

To a question on the judicial probe ordered by the Karnataka government into Ganapati's suicide, he said, "I did not expect you (Siddaramaiah) to stoop so low as to appoint a retired judge, stating there is a shortage of judges in the Supreme Court. Have you requested the Apex Court for judges? If you had the guts you could have handed over the probe to the sitting judge of the high court or of the Supreme Court. This would have been a proper judicial inquiry and I would have appreciated it.

"You cannot fool the people of the state. Times have changed. You have implemented many people-friendly programmes, but the black spot of this case has covered all the good you have done. If you continue to do the same, the people will reject you in the next elections," he told Siddaramaiah.