Taking a veiled swipe at BJP state president B.S. yeddyurappa, KPCC working president Dinesh Gundu Rao on Sunday quipped that BJP leaders who could not win two seats in the just concluded by-elections were dreaming of making Bharat Congress Mukt and dreaming of 150 plus seats in 2018.
Speaking to reporters in Bengaluru, Mr Rao said, "Merely issuing rhetorical statements and indulging in sloganeering like Congress Mukt Bharat will only hurt their throats, at the ground level it may not have the desired impact." In response to a question, Mr Rao contended that party central leaders had taken serious note of those issuing anti-party statements or indulging in anti-party activities in the state. "I think they will be dealt with an iron hand shortly," he added.
Indirectly referring to statements of Congress veteran leaders, B. Janardhan Poojary, Mr Rao said that a Mangaluru-based senior leader of the Congress party had stated that the party will not win a single seat in the by-elections but the party proved him wrong though his statements had an adverse impact during the campaign.
Earlier, Congress MLC, Rizwan Arshad set the tone demanding action against party senior leaders making anti-party statements. "We had one leader called S.M. Krishna, who was given every possible post one could have dreamt of. But his hollowness is so legendary that he went to the United Nations only to read someone's speech copy. Now that he has chosen to be with BJP, I humbly request BJP leaders to take the honour of rehabilitating our party leaders as there are still four or five leaders like Mr Krishna left with us," he said without naming former railway minister and veteran Congress leader, C.K. Jaffer Sharief with whom he shares a love-hate relationship.
