The former Chief Minister and Janata Dal (Secular) State president H.D. Kumaraswamy on Saturday announced that he would take up State-wide Raitha Santhwana Yatra “to instil courage and hope” among farmers who are suffering due to drought and power shortage, even as he continued to target the Congress, especially Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar.
Addressing presspersons after a meeting convened to set up the party’s district-level teams to study the drought situation in the State, Mr. Kumaraswamy said he would take up the yatra along with core committee members, former Ministers, district presidents, and local leaders after the next legislature session.
The district-level teams have been asked to complete their drought study before Deepavali and submit a report to the party’s head office by November 18, he said. “The government has given a report to the Central government that crops on 65 lakh hectares of land have been destroyed due to lack of rain. However, it has failed to extend a helping hand to farmers,” he alleged.
‘TCM/DCM party’
Ridiculing the tussle for the Chief Minister’s post in the Congress, Mr. Kumaraswamy said, “We do not know how many Chief Ministers will the party have in five years. We will have to rename this government as ‘Temporary Chief Minister’ (TCM) and ‘Deputy Chief Minister’ (DCM) government.”
On a lighter note, he challenged Mr. Shivakumar to tell him if he wanted to become the Chief Minister tomorrow itself. “If you want to become the Chief Minister tomorrow itself, we will give you the support of 19 JD(S) MLAs,” he said.
He alleged that the Congress was trying to poach JD(S) MLAs. “You have offered to make G.T. Deve Gowda a Minister and have also invited another MLA, Karemma Nayak, to join the Congress. When you do not have funds for your own legislators, you are tempting other party MLAs to join your party. Tell me if you want, I will myself give you the support of all our MLAs,” he ridiculed.
