Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (ANK) 

Mangaluru Oct 26: Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president, Dinesh Gundu Rao, expressed the view that the state government is currently in coma and has miserably failed to tackle problems faced by the people seriously. 

Addressing the media here on Friday October 25, Rao said, "Shortly, elections will be held for two city corporation councils in the state, one at Davanagere and other at Mangaluru, in addition, the state will also witness by-polls soon. The current situation in the state is favourable for the Congress. The people have seen the BJP rule, even though they did not get majority. The .BJP tried several gimmicks and hatched conspiracies to topple the democratically elected government, by offering lure of money, by owning devious means and owning different kinds of tactics. Their government is however is in coma," he ridiculed. 

"When chief minister Yediyurappa came to power, he was all alone without the support of the cabinet. It was a one man show. Even after the cabinet was formed, many BJP leaders are not satisfied and do not have proper coordination between them in the cabinet. Our state was in a dismal state due to floods, but the government managed to give only Rs 10,000 as relief to the distressed people, and they are still in the process of assessing the relief payable. Central government has totally neglected Karnataka as it is heartless, Prime Minister Narendra Modi did not show any concern towards the people of this state after promising them that he was with them. Modi had no option but to release Rs 1,200 crore as the state was about to witness the by-polsl," said Gundu Rao. 

He also said, "I sympathize with Yediyurappa as he is helpless and he does not have the courage to seek funds from the Prime Minister. When Congress was in power, the then Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, had visited the flood affected areas and released funds within 4 to 5 days. Congress programmes and schemes were extending protection to the people, but the current government has no concern for the people as we face economic crisis, no employment, industries shut down and many more." 

"In Mangaluru we have witnessed several developments and our government has released funds for the development during our tenure and we are confident that we will gain upper hand in the elections," he added. 

When asked whether D K Shivakumar, who has secured bail, would become KPCC president , Dinesh Gundu Rao said," It is up to the party high command to decide what is good in the interests of the party. At the end the day, we are all united and we fight against removal of fascist and dictatorship government." 

When asked about the announcement of the party candidates for MCC elections, Gundu Rao said that the same would be done soon, most probably by Wednesday. 

When asked about the state BJP president, Nalin Kumar Kateel, charging the Congress of looting the people's money, Rao said," Nalin Kumar Kateel suffers from lack of information and he knows only to set things on fire." 

When questioned about taking back disqualified MLAs if they show interest , Gundu Rao said, "There is no question of re-admitting those 15 MLAs into the Congress, even though some of them have shown interest. At any cost, we will not take them back as they have betrayed the party." 

MLC Ivan D Souza, Harish Kumar, former MLAs J R Lobo, Shakuntala Shetty and others were present.