Bengaluru: KPCC president G. Parameshwar on Thursday said AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi has advised state party leaders against making personal comments on opposition BJP leaders and instead engage them on national and local issues in run up to the next year's assembly elections. KPCC leaders including Parameshwar, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Karnataka party incharge and AICC General Secretary K C Venugopal had met Gandhi in New Delhi on October 12 to discuss the poll strategy. Veteran Congress leaders Mallikarjun Kharge, Oscar Fernandes and B K Hariprasad also attended the meeting.
Parameshwar said the AICC vice-president advised them not to make personal comments against BJP leaders but corner them on national and local issues. Parameshwar also said Gandhi has asked KPCC leaders including Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and him to avoid making conflicting statements in the media especially on the issue of selection of party candidates for the election. “We told Rahulji that we do not have any differences, which is evident in our discussions with him everytime we met. Maybe, it is a creation of the opposition or somebody,” he told PTI here.
Media reports have suggested differences between Siddaramaiah and Parameshwar on selection of candidates. The senior Congress leader also said that Gandhi discussed the political scenario in Karnataka and delineated the poll strategy to retain power. The Congress vice-president also stressed the need for raising awareness about the state government's achievements among public, Parameshwar said. “Rahulji has also advised us to meet people and inform them about the government's efforts in implementing welfare schemes and seek their blessings so as to do more for them,” he said.
Asked about the chances of Congress winning the 2018 election, Parameshwar sounded optimistic and claimed the Siddaramaiah government has given a clean and corruption-free governance. “The BJP is merely levelling corruption charges against us but not proving them. In the case of Yeddyurappa and a few BJP ministers, they went to jail after we proved the charges with documentary evidence.”
The Lokayukta court had on October 15, 2011 remanded Karnataka BJP unit chief B.S. Yeddyurappa in judicial custody in cases relating to alleged irregularities in denotification of government land, and sent him to Parappana Agrahara Central jail here. Yeddyurappa, under whom the BJP formed its first-ever government in the south in 2008 elections, had to relinquish the chief minister's post following his indictment in the Lokayukta report on illegal mining submitted on July, 2011 by then anti-corruption ombudsman Santosh Hegde. Parameshwar claimed, "I feel, we provided good governance as we have more money in the budget and are able to spend it on agriculture, education and health.”
