No differences with anyone in party, says D K Shivakumar
Belagavi (Karnataka), Jan 20 (PTI): Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar on Monday said that he has no differences with anyone in the party and appealed to the media not to drag him into any controversy.
Shivakumar, who is also Congress state president, said his sole responsibility is to "save" the party and government.
"My only responsibility is to save the party and keep the government stable. I don't have any responsibilities other than this. I don't have differences with anyone. Please don't drag my name unnecessarily into everything," he said, while speaking to reporters here.
The statement comes in the midst of a demand by a section of ministers and MLAs who wanted a full-time Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president.
Karnataka Public Works Minister Satish Jarkiholi recently raised this demand, saying that ministers cannot do justice to the important post of building the party.
Shivakumar said he has been diligently doing his duty of protecting the interests of the party and the party workers.
"It is between the party, the high command and me. Don't whip up fake controversies within the party by reporting that there is dissidence in the party," Shivakumar told reporters here.
Asked if there was no internal rift in the Congress party, he said, "There is no rift in the party. I don't have differences with anyone in the party personally. I am the president of the Congress Karnataka unit and I treat everyone in the party equally. It is my duty to take everyone along."
To a question about some ministers writing to Congress leader Rahul Gandhi demanding the replacement of AICC general secretary in-charge of Karnataka, Randeep Singh Surjewala, Shivakumar termed it as speculation and refused to react to it.
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Congress using hijab issue to pacify minority anger, alleges Karnataka LoP R Ashoka
Bengaluru: Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R. Ashoka has accused the Congress government of using the hijab issue to placate what he described as discontent among minority voters after the Davanagere by-election.
In a post on X on Wednesday, Ashoka alleged that the state government, instead of addressing issues such as price rise, corruption, farmers’ distress and law and order, was attempting to retain its minority vote base by reviving the hijab issue.
Referring to the 2022 dress code introduced by the BJP government, which prohibited hijab in schools and colleges, Ashoka said the Karnataka High Court had upheld the policy and emphasised the importance of discipline in educational institutions.
He questioned the Congress government’s move to revisit the issue and asked whether setting aside the court-backed policy to benefit one community could be described as secularism.
Ashoka further alleged that while the government was willing to permit hijab, it continued to prohibit saffron shawls.
He accused the government of dividing students on religious lines rather than treating schools and colleges as spaces of equality.
Drawing a comparison with Mamata Banerjee’s government in West Bengal, Ashoka claimed that excessive appeasement politics had harmed the state and warned that the Congress in Karnataka could face a similar political response.
He said voters in Karnataka would teach the Congress a lesson for what he termed “vote-bank politics” and for compromising constitutional and judicial principles.
