Senior Congress leader and Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha M. Mallikarjun Kharge on Saturday took exception to the debate on the future Chief Minister of the State in the Congress party.
Fielding reporters’ queries on the issue on his arrival in Mysuru to participate in a function to release a book on former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s administration, Mr. Kharge said such a public debate on the party’s chief ministerial candidate before the elections was inappropriate.
Mr. Kharge said that all the party’s MLAs and leaders will be called for a meeting after the election and their opinion will be elicited. Based on the views collected at the meeting, the Congress High Command will take a decision, Mr. Kharge said while remarking that the post of Chief Minister is not something that the leaders can appropriate for themselves in the Congress party. First, the party has to be brought to power with the required strength.
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Mr. Kharge also made it clear that he had not found any leader in the Congress party issuing statements on becoming the Chief Minister. Mr. Siddaramaiah and Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) President D.K. Shivakumar too have said that it is the party High Command that will take a decision on the post of Chief Minister if the party comes to power, Mr. Kharge added.
“It is not a decision that will be taken in Bengaluru, Mysuru or Kalburgi... It will be decided by the party High Command”, Mr. Kharge said.
Mr. Kharge said the Congress party always believes in facing elections under collective leadership and all the party workers are soldiers in the army. But, when somebody has to be made the captain, the High Command will take a decision on the prevailing or future circumstances, he added while emphasising that the party will work with unity in the coming elections to the Legislative Assembly in the State.
When asked about his plans to return to State politics, Mr. Kharge said he will come back to State politics if he is given a chance.
To another question on former Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa’s decision to retire from electoral politics, Mr. Kharge said it was the BJP leader’s personal’s decision. Everybody has the freedom to take their own decision, Mr. Kharge added.
Mr Kharge also criticised the BJP Government at the Centre for misusing Enforcement Directorate (ED) to harass the leadership of the Congress party and questioned the need for the Gandhi family which had made huge sacrifices for the country to indulge in petty money laundering. He said Congress has only tried to save the newspaper National Herald in 1936 for freedom movement and communal harmony through legal means while rejecting the charges made by the BJP against the Congress party in this regard.
