Bengaluru: Former minister and senior Congress leader Adagur H. Vishwanath has been kept out of the poll campaign for Nanjangud and Gundlupet Assembly segments which are facing by-polls on April 9, following instructions from Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.
Going a step further, the CM has directed the party district units not to put the picture of Mr Vishwanath in the posters and flex boards in both constituencies as a 'punishment' for Mr Vishwanath for being a strong critic of the government.
Sources close to Mr Vishwanath said Mr Siddaramaiah had issued strict instructions to the district leaders of both Nanjangud and Gundlupet not to involve the former MP in any poll related work including undertaking the campaign in favor of Congress candidates in the coming by-elections.
With this, it is evident that Mr Siddaramaiah and Mr Vishwanath who belong to the Kuruba community, have no plans to bury the hatchet despite the fact that the Assembly elections are due to be held after 12 months.
Mr Siddaramaiah had reportedly distanced himself from his one-time political associate who has become an ‘opposition leader’ due to his caustic remarks on the functioning of the Congress government in the state.
It is learnt that Mr Siddaramaiah is upset with the former MP from Mysuru-Kodagu for holding a meeting of his friends last week after the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) issued a show-cause notice to him for his diatribe against the government.
The directive of the CM to District Congress Committee leaders to go ahead with the printing of flex boards and posters only after removing Mr Vishwanath's photographs, has caused a further division in both Mysuru and Chamarajanagar district Congress units.
Talking to Deccan Chronicle, Mr Vishwanath said he was not 'perturbed' or 'disturbed' by Mr Siddaramaiah's action as it was expected from a leader who had been intoxicated by power. "I have made contributions to the people as minister twice and also as Lok Sabha member. The CM is wrong if he feels he can shut my mouth with such cheap tricks. Siddaramaiah must not forget that I have worked as district-in-charge minister of Mysuru twice".
Mr Vishwanath said he was the last person to bring this move (to keep him away from the election campaign) to the notice of the All India Congress Committee to prove how the old guard of the party were being treated by the incumbent government.
None can silence him just by keeping him away from the poll campaign and removing his pictures from the party flex boards as he was a born Congressman and wedded to the principles and ideology of the party.
Mr Siddaramaiah is learnt to have told his partymen that ‘votes will not come' even if they carry the pictures of Mr Vishwanath in party posters. "I will certainly go and address public meetings if the party candidates and district leaders invite me. This kind of vengeance politics is never heard of in the Congress party," he remarked.
