Bangarappa poisons Sonia's ears against Krishna

Bangarappa poisons Sonia's ears against Krishna
B.S.NAGARAJ

NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 15: Around the time Karnataka Chief Minister S.M.Krishna was having his tete-a-tete with Microsoft chief Bill Gates yesterday, his detractors in the Congress were busy poisoning Sonia Gandhi's ears against him. Senior leader S.Bangarappa gave vent to the ire of a section of partymen against the Krishna's handling of the Rajkumar hostage crisis.

In the first show of revolt against Krishna, who has remained free of intra-party squabbles so far, Bangarappa went to Sonia with a litany of complaints against him. The former chief minister, whose daughter is married to Rajkumar's son, is furious over the way Krishna has ``surrendered'' to Veerappan.

Bangarappa confirmed that the Veerappan issue figured prominently during the 30-minute meeting with Sonia but refused to reveal more. Krishna too met Sonia in the evening but made himself scarce to reporters.

Party sources said Bangarappa told Sonia that the Krishna government had committed a blunder by not completing the formalities for the release of the 51 TADA detenues in time after the designated court allowed it to withdraw cases against them. He feels this proved costly as the father of a policeman slain by Veerappan got the Supreme Court to stay the release of these detenues. One of Veerappan's main demands is that the TADA cases against these persons should be withdrawn.

Sources claimed Sonia had expressed her displeasure over Krishna's handling of the situation. She is believed to have remarked that the delay in securing the release of the hostages and the Supreme Court's adverse comments had harmed the image of the Congress government, especially when it had been doing so well ever since it assumed office.

It could not be immediately ascertained if Sonia made her displeasure known to Krishna during their meeting. But what is significant is that the seeds of dissidence against the Chief Minister seem to be striking roots in a state where no Congressman in power has escaped this scourge. This development will only give a fillip to the disgruntled elements in the party, like former Union minister C.K.Jaffer Sharief, who were waiting for an opportunity to strike at Krishna. The hostage crisis will be used as a stick to beat him with even after it ends.

Bangarappa is now busy taking a legal initiative independent of the state government and the petition filed on behalf of the TADA detenues in the Supreme Court two days ago is part of this exercise.