Cong all set to counter-attack HDK over 'tell-tale' pen drive

Shyam Sundar Vattam | NT

Bengaluru: Even as Janata Dal (Secular) Floor leader and former Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy is likely to make public a pen drive, which is said to contain “shocking evidence” about transfers in the Energy department, on Monday, the ruling Congress party is fully geared up to “effectively” counter him on the floor of the Assembly.

Sources close to Kumaraswamy told News Trail that the JDS leader has reportedly made up his mind to make public the pen drive to avoid being called a 'Hit & Run' politician by the Congress leaders.

The for mer CM on Thursday had brought with him photocopies of the contents in the pen drive and discussed the matter with BJP leaders as to how to go about it.

Kumaraswamy h a s claimed that a minister will have to resign when contents of the pen drive are made public. He challenged the CM whether he had the “guts to face the truth”.

In turn, Siddaramaiah termed the JDS leader a 'Hit & Run' politician, and asked him to go ahead with his decision to make his allegations public.

Meanwhile, senior Congress ministers huddled together after the presentation of the State Budget by the CM on Friday, discussing ways to counter the impending “pen-drive politics” by the BJP-JD(S) duo.

They also informed all Congress MLAs to be ready and stay on their toes to defend the government and defeat “evil designs” of the Opposition parties.

Senior ministers who sit in the front row in the treasury benches like Energy Minister KJ George, Deputy Chief Minister and Water Resources Minister DK Shivakumar, Large & Medium Scale Industries Minister MB Patil, Home Minister Dr G Parameshwara, Agriculture Minister N Chaluvaraya Swamy and others have been directed not to allow Kumaraswamy to speak on the issue, and try to block him as much as possible.

The Congress leaders are not scared of the BJP MLAs due to the lack of oratory skills among them. So the entire battery of the Opposition is squarely dependent on Kumaraswamy to expose the contents of the pen drive as others do not know much about it.

Dig into past The Cong ress leaders are said to be digging up graves to try and find out something strong against Kumaraswamy to use as a weapon. A section of leaders is busy finding out any pending corruption charges against the JDS leader to counter him effectively on the floor of the House.

The Congress is trying to dig out any corruption involving transfers during the Kumaraswamy government regime, and to raise it in the lower house to defeat his purpose of exposing the newly formed Congress government headed by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.

Meanwhile, the CM is said to be down with a cough and cold and resting at his home. He is likely to be back in action on Monday to take on his bête noire, Kumaraswamy, with whom he frequently has skirmishes.