BENGALURU: AICC general secretary and Karnataka in-charge KC Venugopal has warned state Congress leaders against airing their views on Congress-JD(S) coalition government publicly.

The warning came at a meeting of KPCC office-bearers and district Congress presidents held here on Saturday. “Having an alliance with JD(S) is a decision the high command has taken keeping national interest in mind. So none of you should make any comments on it publicly. Whoever violates this will be dealt with seriously,” Venugopal told the leaders.

He also told the leaders that the high command will take a decision on appointments to boards and corporations and also on seat-sharing between Congress and JD(S) in Lok Sabha elections.

Stating that a negative campaign against the Siddaramaiah government and an aggressive Hindutva card played by BJP cost the Congress heavily in the assembly polls, Venugopal said, “The BJP in all likelihood will adopt the same tactics in LS polls and we need to counter it by aggressively highlighting failures of the Modi government,” he added.

Newly appointed KPCC president Dinesh Gundurao acknowledged the fact that the decision to have an alliance with JD(S) has not gone down well with leaders and workers of south Karnataka. “I am not saying that your concerns are not uncalled for, but you have to bury your differences and work for the success of the alliance in LS polls,” he reportedly told the meeting.

JD(S) to rejig party

The JD(S), which is high on confidence after being able to form the government in alliance with Congress, has started preparations for Lok Sabha polls.

JD(S) patriarch HD Deve Gowda chaired a meeting of party leaders in Bengaluru on Saturday to decide to relieve CM HD Kumaraswamy from the responsibility of heading party’s state unit.

“Being CM, it will be difficult for Kumaraswamy to build the party. So we have decided to appoint a new president and office bearers for the state unit. We will form a committee to take up this exercise,” Gowda told reporters after the meeting.

