BENGALURU: An emergency all-party meeting, convened by Chief Minister Siddararamaiah and Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivkumar at Vidhana Soudha to discuss the Cauvery river water dispute on Wednesday, was given a miss by top BJP leaders, including former chief minister BS Yediyurappa, who was in New Delhi.
Posting on X, Yediyurappa stated, “Government has informed about the meeting at a short notice. However, I am not able to attend the same as I have participated in the pre-scheduled meeting in my constituency. Our stand on the Cauvery issue is clear. The state government should not release water to Tamil Nadu for any reason. The state government should convince the Supreme Court and CWMA of the material condition of the state.”
JDS senior leader HD Kumaraswamy too did not attend as he was busy in a meeting with BJP leader KS Eshwarappa to discuss the alliance between the two parties for the Lok Sabha elections.
Mysuru-Kodagu BJP MP Pratap Simha, who attended the meeting, supported the state government in safeguarding the interest of farmers. But he opposed the move to force Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s intervention to resolve the dispute. “Tamil Nadu takes all legal routes and the state government too should follow suit,” he added.
Mandya MP Sumalatha Amabreesh, said, “When my husband Ambareesh was the union minister when Congress Prime Minister was at the helm, the issue could not be resolved. That forced Ambareesh to resign from the minister’s post to stand by farmers of Mandya.”
She alleged that the state government has not competently defended its case for years either with the authorities or Supreme Court. “We should have been as aggressive as Tamil Nadu, which filed the application before the Supreme Court, which we should have also done,” she told reporters after the meeting.
Meanwhile, former CM Basavaraj Bommai told reporters in Gadag that the party had appealed to the government not to release water in the earlier all-party meeting. Ministers Dr G Parameshwara, HK Patil, Cheluvarayaswamy, KH Muniyappa, KN Rajanna, NS Boseraju, K Venkatesh, Zameer Ahmed Khan, former CM M Veerappa Moily, MPs, MLAs, Chief Secretary Vandita Sharma, and others were present.