‘Chalo Delhi’: Congress Set To Stage Protest With 135 Karnataka MLAs In Delhi (image-twitter/siddaramiah)
Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday announced that the MPs and MLAs of Karnataka will stage a protest on Wednesday in Delhi Jantar Mantar against the Central government’s tax devolution policies. A letter was written by the chief minister to all Union ministers and MPs seeking their support.
The letters, dated February 5, said that the protest was against the “continuous injustice from the Central government and the step-motherly treatment meted to Karnataka.”
In preparation for the protest, all the Congress leaders have arrived in Delhi, and are now residing at Karnataka Bhawan. The protest is expected to include 135 Congress MLAs, 28 MLCs, one Lok Sabha MP, and five Rajya Sabha MPs, with the potential participation of Independent MLA Darshan Puttannaiah, reports Hindustan Times. Congress officials and Youth Congress members are also expected to take part in the protest.
Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Union Minister for Coal, Mines and Parliamentary Affairs Pralhad Joshi, Leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, and Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment A Narayanaswamy are among those who have been requested to participate in the stir.
“Lives of the people in the state are severely affected by the grave injustice in the devolution of taxes, not releasing drought relief, neglect and delay in providing clearances and grants for various projects in the state etc…,” the letter read.
The protest which will be held on Wednesday is part of the ‘South Tax Movement’ on social media platforms. To spread the gravity of the situation, several tweets with the hashtag were shared by Siddaramaiah and other ministers on X, formerly Twitter, and other online platforms.
The government also splashed full-page advertisements in newspapers on Tuesday to acquire maximum publicity.
While speaking to the reporters, Siddaramaiah said that the protest was non-partisan and asked it to be framed as a fight against injustice and discrimination in tax allocation. He then urged all the stakeholders to keep aside their political differences and be a part of the protest for the betterment of the state.
Meanwhile, the former Chief Minister KS Eshwarappa criticized the Congress-led state government for organizing a protest at taxpayers expense. “I had no objection if this was organized by the Congress. But, they are doing it with the government’s money. Their flight charges, stay, food and other expenses are borne by taxpayers’ money. This is an election stunt. If they had any issues, they could have met the Union finance minister and discussed,” he said.
Eshwarappa further labeled the protest as a political stunt and suggested that the issue could be resolved by dialogue with the Union ministers.
