HDK as good as LOP, says Savadi

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Congress MLA from Athani Laxman Savadi on Wednesday suggested that the indecision within the BJP leading to nonappointment of the Leader of the Opposition (LOP) in the Assembly had turned JD(S) legislature party leader HD Kumaraswamy into the de facto Opposition leader.

It wasn’t clear whether the lawmaker was joking or not because the privilege of naming the LOP rests with the principal Opposition party, which in this case is the BJP with 66 seats. JD(S) is the third largest party and has 19 seats.

Congress has a simple majority holding 135 out of a possible 224 seats. Perhaps, Savadi was taking a dig at BJP, his former party, which hadn’t given him a ticket in the past Assembly polls.

This had led him to join Congress, contest from Athani and beat BJP’s Mahesh Kumatahalli by more than 75,000 votes.

On the other hand, the Congressman might have been suggesting that Kumaraswamy was virtually acting like the LOP since the BJP hadn’t named anyone yet.

“You are saying the Leader of the Opposition hasn’t been named yet,” Savadi told JD(S) MLA GT Devegowda.

“My old contacts and friends tell me there is no end to their fighting and there will be no solution to this problem. If there is anyone who will fulfill the duties assigned to the Leader of the Opposition correctly, it is Kumaraswamy. So you stay silent. They may even depute him in the coming days,” he added.