BENGALURU: Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, who had camped in New Delhi for the last three days, has allegedly scuttled a foreign trip planned by MLAs loyal to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, triggering a controversy. It is not the first time that Shivakumar has thrown the spanner in the machinations of the other camp. He had earlier stopped Home Minister Dr G Parameshwara from holding an SC/ST MLAs’ meeting on the advice of the CM.
But Shivakumar denied any knowledge of the Siddaramaiah camp planning a foreign trip and said he came to know about it only through the media.
MLA C Puttaranga Shetty and Animal Husbandry and Sericulture Minister K Venkatesh, a staunch loyalist of the CM, had coordinated a trip to Australia and New Zealand for 22 party legislators. Venkatesh on Thursday maintained that neither he nor his department had organised the trip. But sources said he backed out after AICC General Secretary, Karnataka in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala nudged him at the instance of Shivakumar.
The legislators who had responded to Venkatesh’s call and prepared for the foreign trip include HD Thammaiah, Hampanagouda Badarli, Yashwantharayagouda V Patil, BM Nagaraj, JT Patil, Allamaprabhu Patil, C Puttaranga Shetty, Basanagouda Daddal, AR Krishna Murthy, Basangouda Turuvihalla, B Devendrappa, Anil Chikkamadhu, Raghumurthy and K Shivakumar. Some of them are likely to back out, fearing the ire of the high command and Shivakumar.
But others may go ahead. So as not to defy the high command’s order, they are all flying with their family members and planning to meet their relatives abroad, a MLA clarified while speaking to TNIE.
They have already got the no-objection certificate from the secretariat and are expected to leave on February 17 and return on March 3, three days before the CM presents the budget on March 6.
A Congress leader commented that the MLAs are supposed to seek grants for the development of their constituencies by pushing certain projects. Going on a foreign trip is unwarranted, he said.
“But it is a private trip. If it is an official study trip, the ministry of external affairs should give the clearance,” an official source said.