Many Karnataka Mlas With Me: Hegde

The expelled Janata Dal leader and convener of the Rashtriya Nav Nirman Manch, Ramakrishna Hegde, yesterday claimed that he enjoyed the moral support of several Karnataka legislators.

Asked if Chief Minister J H Patel would join his party, he said,I do not contradict it.

Hegde was answering questions at a press conference where he announced that his new party would be launched on February 16 in Bangalore.

The former Karnataka Chief Minister said that Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda was acting like the state Chief Minister, while Patel was functioning as the deputy Chief Minister. What will happen to such a state, he posed.

Regarding mid-term polls to the Lok Sabha, Hegde said it was not only unavoidable but desirable to replace what he termed as caricature of a government at the Centre.

He felt it was best to go back to the people for a clear verdict rather than cling to power through manipulations or defections.

He said the question was whether the mid-term poll would be held under the present dispensation which I call a political absurdity or with the Congress in power.

Attacking Gowda he said the way the Prime Minister was announcing development packages, it seemed as if he was on an election campaign.

Hegde charged that there was nothing in common or agreed in the common minimum programme of the United Front government, otherwise different ministers would not have made diametrically opposite statements on various subjects.

Hegde said his new party would have no truck with the BJP nor join the Congress. It would be secular in nature and strive to remove illiteracy, unemployment, poverty and corruption. He said the name for his party has not been finalised and that it would give priority to the youth.