BENGALURU: With the 10-day legislature session set to start from Monday, Congress is all prepared to put the Bommai government on the mat over several issues, including increase in prices of essential commodities, law and order situation, handling of Covid and the National Education Policy, which the Opposition says is being implemented without consulting all stakeholders. Leader of Opposition in the Assembly Siddaramaiah told The New Sunday Express that highlighting the State Government’s failures on many fronts will be the Opposition’s strategy. Excerpts.
What will be the Opposition’s strategy in the session starting from Monday?
We are going to highlight the failures of the government. Price rise, handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, high number of deaths during the second wave, the government’s failure to supply oxygen to hospitals, financial position of the state, the NEP, law and order situation and other important issues will be taken up during the session.
Do you think the Opposition will get adequate time to discuss all these issues as the government is also planning to table several Bills?
We don’t know how many Bills will be tabled. Now, they have told us they will bring 10 bills. We have also been told that there are no controversial Bills... we don’t know yet. Let us see... we will look into it.
Will there be any coordination between the Opposition parties JDS and Congress?
Yes, floor coordination will be there.
Congress has been taking up the issue of price rise. But in recent urban local body (ULB) elections, BJP got more seats than Congress. Was it not an issue in the ULB polls? Did the Congress fail to capitalise on it?
They have not taken any measures to check price rise. It has been six months since the session was last held and haven’t the prices of essential commodities, fuel and LPG cylinder increased? In ULB polls, we lost some seats due to AIMIM. It played a spoilsport in 7-8 seats in Hubballi-Dharwad and 5-6 seats in Kalaburagi. We would have got a majority in both the corporations. But because of AIMIM, we could not get a simple majority.
How will the Congress deal with the apprehension of the division of secular votes due to the AIMIM factor?
We will convince people before the next Assembly elections in 2023. We will request voters not to vote for the AIMIM as that will help the BJP.
The recent session of Parliament was a complete washout without any debate or discussion. Can people expect some meaningful discussions and debates in the state assembly?
We will take up the issues and discuss them. We have to discuss many important issues, except Bills there are no other subjects as the budget is already passed.