Congress will rectify mistakes of Lok Sabha elections: Karnataka Deputy CM Shivakumar

PTI, Jul 11, 2024, 6:43 PM IST

Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar on Thursday said the Congress party would evaluate and rectify the mistakes it committed in the Lok Sabha elections in the state.

He said the exercise is aimed at taking on the BJP-JDS combine.

Speaking to reporters at the KPCC office, Shivakumar, who is also the Congress state president, said the party increased its tally from one seat in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections to nine in 2024, but that fell short of the expectation of at least 14 to 15 seats.

“The performance will be evaluated by the party in the presence of the AICC fact-finding committee. This process is taking place across the country. We are sharing our reports for the four geographical regions of the state. We will discuss and find out the shortcomings.”

“We had fielded very good candidates in the recent Lok Sabha elections. We need to understand the subtle factors which have influenced the results. We knew that the BJP-JDS combine had an advantage, we will prepare ourselves to fight them in the future elections,” he added.

ED raids unwarranted

Asked about the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) raids in the Valmiki Development Corporation case, he said, “It is clear there are irregularities in the case. The state government has formed an SIT to investigate and it will come out with the findings. The government is also attaching the funds which were misused. The ED could have evaluated if the SIT investigation was in order, I don’t know why ED raids are being done now. The investigations are going on in a free and fair manner. Let’s see what the ED will do.” Asked if the ED raids are politically motivated, he said he would comment on it once the ED investigations are complete.

SCPTS funds

Asked about the National Commission Scheduled Castes (NCSC) issuing notice to the Chief Secretary regarding using SCPTS money for guarantee schemes, he said, “Karnataka is the second state after Andhra Pradesh to bring out legislation for separate grants for SC and ST development. We are using these funds only for their welfare, the Commission should be ashamed to issue a notice in this regard. There is nothing wrong in using SCPTS funds for guarantee schemes.”

(With inputs from IANS)