From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network
Bengaluru, Jul 26: Obviously rattled by the North Karnataka Bandh call on August 2 in the 13 districts seeking separate statehood for the region, Karnataka’s Congress leaders sought to resort to immediate damage control measures by trying to reassure the people that the region will not be discriminated against by the HD Kumaraswamy-led Congress-JD(S) coalition regime.
Deputy chief minister Dr G Parameshwara, who is handling Home and Bengaluru Development portfolios in the coalition government, and the newly appointed KPCC president Dinesh Gundu Rao urged the leaders of the Uttara Karnataka Horata Samithi to call off the bandh in the 13 districts on August 2 and assured that them the state government would not discriminate against any region.
“We are committed to the development of North Karnataka,’’ Dr Parameshwara, who was the KPCC president till recently, said while his successor Dinesh Gundu Rao said the state government would everything for the all-round development of the North Karnataka region.
Evidently, the Congress party is worried about the political repercussions in the next year’s Lok Sabha elections if the simmering discontent among the people of the North Karnataka region is allowed to continue.
The Congress leaders are apparently worried about the negative perception among a section of the people of North Karnataka that chief minister Kumaraswamy was neglecting the region merely because his JD(S) was able to secure barely 5 out of the 37 seats won by it in the assembly elections and that its presence is largely confined to southern parts of the state.
The Congress leaders are making extra efforts to show that the alleged discrimination towards the region in the state budget of Chief Minister Kumaraswamy was unfounded.
What must have irked the leaders of the North Karnataka is the Chief Minister’s recent remarks against North Karnataka electorate.
The leaders of the Uttar Karnataka Pratyeka Rajya Horata Samiti have given a call for the bandh of 13 districts on August 2.
Some of the Congress and BJP leaders believed to be backing the demand due to their own reasons.
While BJP believes that the Lingayat strongman B S Yeddyurappa, who is considered the most powerful leader of the politically dominant community holding sway in nearly 120 out of the 224 assembly constituencies, some of the Congress leaders are known to be upset at being ignored in the Kumaraswamy cabinet.
Reacting to a question on the issue, KPCC president Dinesh Gundu Rao said “The government is not discriminating against the north Karnataka on the basis of electoral performance. We are for al-round development of the state.”
On the budget, he said “Kumaraswamy’s budget has been wrongly understood. It should be read along with Siddaramaiah’s budget.”
However, he admitted that owing to JD(S) electoral fortunes in the south, the Cabinet comprised many ministers from the southern districts.
The Congress would set right the regional representation in the cabinet by giving maximum number of seats to the north Karnataka region MLAs during the next cabinet expansion, he said.
The Congress party is yet to fill its six vacant cabinet berths.
Meanwhile, deputy chief minister and home minister Dr Parameshwara appealed to the people of the region to drop their proposed bandh call.
The region has not been neglected and the Congress government has released funds under the Najundappa Committee for addressing the regional imbalances.
On Wednesday, Somashekar Kotambari, president of the Uttara Karnataka Horata Samithi, called for a bandh across 13 districts in the region.
The protests have added to the troubles of the barely three-month-old coalition government led by Kumaraswamy.