BENGALURUl: Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar on Thursday said that the Congress legislature party (CLP) has resolved to condemn Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot’s move to sanction prosecution and unanimously support Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.
Addressing a press conference after the Congress legislature party meeting at Vidhana Soudha, Shivakumar said, “The Congress legislature party resolved to condemn the governor’s move to allow prosecution of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah under Section 17(a) without any preliminary investigation. Senior legislator R V Deshpande proposed the motion and Tanveer Sait seconded it.”
“All the party MLAs stand behind CM Siddaramaiah. All the Congress party MLAs, MLCs and MPs participated in the meeting. Except the six MLAs who are in Delhi for a training mandated by the Speaker, all the legislators were present at the meeting”, he further added.
Shivakumar said that the people of Karnataka have supported them with 136 seats and the BJP and JD(S) are trying to destabilise a democratically elected government. “They will not be able to unseat the government, the whole party stands behind the CM,” he said.
“We have sought time from the High Command on August 23. The Chief Minister and I will be travelling to Delhi to discuss the situation. We have submitted a petition in the court too against the decision of the Governor. We have faith that the courts will give us justice. The BJP conspired to remove our leader Rahul Gandhi on the pretext of breach of rules in a speech and now they are conspiring to unseat CM Siddaramaiah”, he further added.
Asked if the INDIA bloc supports the Congress party on this, he said, “INDIA bloc was born here and has secured 234 seats in the country. We are fighting against this in the state, I will update you on this after our visit to Delhi”.
Asked what message the condemnation of the Governor’s move by the Cabinet sent across, he said, “We appeal to the governor to withdraw his sanction. It would help restore the Constitution. The governor must withdraw the sanction in order to save the respectability of the chair”. (ANI)