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6 Hegde associates join Congress

Six senior Lok Shakti politicians, including four members of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly, today joined the Congress, giving the party's prospects in the forthcoming election a boost.

Addressing a news conference at the All-India Congress Committee headquarters, general secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad said the politicians were joining the party without any condition.

Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president S M Krishna said the four MLAs would resign from the assembly and he would forward their resignations to the speaker.

He said there was no sympathy wave for the Bharatiya Janata Party, and it was only a propaganda ploy.

The MLAs who joined the Congress are former ministers R V Deshpande, Gurupadappa Nagamarpalli, P C Siddanagoudar and B R Yavagal. The others who joined the party are Kodande Ramaiah, former member of Parliament, and V S Ugrappa, former member of the Karnataka Legislative Council.

Deshpande said the Lok Shakti is "under liquidation" in Karnataka and its workers are unhappy with party president Ramakrishna D Hegde siding with the BJP.

He said that at one time Hegde himself had tried to join the Congress and failed.

AICC general secretary Oscar Fernandes, secretary Anil Shastri, and former Union ministers R L Jalappa and Margaret Alva were present at the press conference.

In Bangalore, Chief Minister Jayadevappa Patel sought to downplay the four legislators joining the Congress, saying they were not in the ruling Janata Dal.

Reacting to the development, he said, "God bless them."

Deshpande, Nagamarpalli, Siddanagoudar and Yavagal were with the Rashtriya Navanirmana Vedike, an apolitical outfit floated by Hegde. But they continued as members of the Janata Dal in the assembly.

UNI

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