Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar (2nd left) during a meeting with All India Congress Committee (AICC) leaders headed by Madhusudan Mistry (2nd right), Lok Sabha MPs Gaurav Gogoi (left) and Hibi Eden, at KPCC office in Bengaluru on Thursday, July 11. PTI
DK Shivakumar: Congress will rectify mistakes made in LS polls, fight BJP-JDS
“We increased our tally from 1 to 9 in the recent Lok Sabha elections, but that is not up to our expectations of 14-15 seats,” he said
Karnataka’s Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar on Thursday (July 11) said that the Congress would evaluate and rectify the mistakes of the Lok Sabha elections and be prepared to take on the BJP-JDS combine in the state.
Speaking to reporters at the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) office in Bengaluru, he said, “We increased our tally from 1 to 9 in the recent Lok Sabha elections, but that is not up to our expectations of 14-15 seats. The performance will be evaluated by the party in the presence of the AICC fact-finding committee. This process is taking place across the country. We are sharing our reports for the four geographical regions of the state. We will discuss and find out the shortcomings.”
“We had fielded very good candidates in the recent Lok Sabha elections. We need to understand the subtle factors which have influenced the results. We knew that the BJP-JDS combine had an advantage, we will prepare ourselves to fight them in the future elections,” he added.
ED raids unwarranted
Asked about the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) raids in the Valmiki Development Corporation case, he said, “It is clear there are irregularities in the case. The state government has formed an SIT to investigate and it will come out with the findings. The government is also attaching the funds which were misused. The ED could have evaluated if the SIT investigation was in order, I don’t know why ED raids are being done now. The investigations are going on in a free and fair manner. Let’s see what the ED will do.”
Asked if the ED raids are politically motivated, he said he would comment on it once the ED investigations are complete.
SCPTS funds
Asked about the National Commission Scheduled Castes (NCSC) issuing notice to the Chief Secretary regarding using SCPTS money for guarantee schemes, he said, “Karnataka is the second state after Andhra Pradesh to bring out legislation for separate grants for SC and ST development. We are using these funds only for their welfare, the Commission should be ashamed to issue a notice in this regard. There is nothing wrong in using SCPTS funds for guarantee schemes.”
