COMMENTARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ARCHIVES

Hegde may not contest

Lok Shakthi president Ramakrishna Hegde may not contest the general election, Karnataka unit chief Jeevaraj Alva indicated on Friday.

"I do not think he should contest the poll," he told newspersons in Bangalore, just before admitting several Congress and Janata Dal defectors into his party, "We need him for campaigning."

He said the Lok Shakthi and the Bharatiya Janata Party, with which it had entered into a seat adjustment, would launch a joint campaign with BJP president L K Advani, former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Hegde addressing it. The date for the launch has not been finalised yet.

Admitting that there were 'some differences' among a section of the Lok Shakthi leaders about the alliance with the BJP, he appealed to them to get their doubts clarified in the party fora instead of expressing their views to the press. Any dissent, ideologically or otherwise, would be respected and there would be no expulsions or show cause notices served, he assured.

Dr Alva renewed his call to Janata Dal workers to join the Lok Shakthi. However, he made it clear that Union Minister Ratnamala Savanur, who had sent feelers seeking membership, was not welcome. "The decision was taken at Hegde's instance," he said.

Dr Alva said member of the just-dissolved Lok Sabha P Kodandaramaiah, who had resigned from the Janata Dal's primary membership, would be joining the Lok Shakthi 'in a day or two'.

Prominent among those who joined the party on Friday were former Lidkar chairman N Somu, Anand Shivappa, Rangappa, Neelkant Asuti and theatre personality M D Kaushik.

He claimed that the exodus from the JD had just begun and the party would be 'liquidated' before the election.

He also hinted that Karnataka Industry Minister R V Deshpande would join the Lok Shakthi.

"We will welcome him if he takes the decision. Today or tomorrow he will be part of us," he said.

He ridiculed the JD's slogan (about former prime minister H D Deve Gowda) 'From hoskote to kempukote' (the Red Fort), and said Deve Gowda was living in a fool's paradise.

UNI

Tell us what you think of this report