Cong. leaders seek action against Vishwanath, Shariff and Poojary

State Congress Legislators have urged Chief Minister Siddharamaiah and Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) President and Home Minister, Dr. G. Parameshwara to expel veteran leaders like A.H. Vishwanath, C.K. Jaffer Shariff and Janardhana Poojary for openly criticising the party and its leaders. They said that the leaders have been causing embarrassment to the party by criticising every move in governance conveying a wrong message. Sources said that the discussion started at the Parliamentary party meeting held here yesterday with some MLAs criticising Vishwanath for allegedly speaking against CM Siddharamaiah recently. “The party has made Vishwanath an MLA, an MP and a Minister too. He has enjoyed prime positions in the party and he still continues to bad-mouth the CM and the High Command. He should be shown the door or else the Congress will face more embarrassment from him,” a few MLAs said. “We are ready to take up the matter with the High Command if you fail to take action against Vishwanath,” MLAs added. They said that the High Command is hesitating to take action against Jaffer Shariff. “Congress has suffered ignominious defeat in the by-election held to Hebbal Assembly constituency since Jaffer Shariff’s grandson was Congress candidate. Shariff has availed lot of benefits from Congress but instead of being grateful, he has been busy in criticising Congress leadership,” the MLAs said. MLA Narendra pointed out that leaders like Poojary, Vishwanath and Jaffer Shariff have been taking the party and its Government in the State to task repeatedly in hostile language. Narendra’s demand to stop these leaders from making derisive comments about party and its leaders received all-round support at the meeting. While Shariff was accused of calling the Siddharamaiah Government a ‘Kuruba government’, Poojary had called Siddharamaiah a ‘curse’ to the Congress after former Minister S.M. Krishna quit the party. Speaking after the meeting, KPCC Working President Dinesh Gundu Rao said that the meeting decided to act against the above three leaders and that the party’s Central Committee would be asked to serve show-cause notices to them. “The Congress Coordination Committee meeting will decide on what kind of action to be taken against these dissidents,’’ Dinesh Gundu Rao said.