DKS issues gag order on MLAs amid tussle

Maqsood Maniyar | NT

Bengaluru: Deputy Chief Minister and Karnataka Congress chief on Saturday issued a public gag order against the party’s 135 MLAs for speaking on “internal matters”.

“No MLA should speak to the media about power sharing, support (for any leader as CM) and other issues,” Shivakumar told mediapersons.

The development comes in the backdrop of successive statements from Congress MLAs and moves by a sitting minister, which has sent the rumour mill into an overdrive.

The final straw appears to have been DKS loyalist and Congress MLA from Channagiri Basavaraju Shivaganga stating in public that “70 young debutant MLAs” had been in the camp of Shivakumar.

Prior to this, Minister for Public Works Satish Jarkiholi had planned on taking 20 MLAs who supported him to Mysuru in a show of strength but All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary and Karnataka in-charge convinced him to not do the same.

Jarkiholi is miffed that either of his son or daughter hadn’t been considered for a Congress ticket for a Lok Sabha seat. Satish followed this up by saying that Shivakumar alone didn’t bring the party to power.

“Whatever the internal issues of the party and the government, the MLAs can discuss them with me and the chief minister. They should never speak before the media,” Shivakumar said, adding that he never claimed that he alone brought the party to power.

Government Chief Whip Ashok Pattan's had in public said that there would be a Cabinet reshuffle after two-anda-half years, adding that he was promised a ministry. Shivakumar denied that discussions on a Cabinet reshuffle had taken place.