Any out of turn remark on K'taka will be deemed ‘indiscipline’: Congress

NEW DELHI: Amid suspense over the next Karnataka Chief Minister, the Congress on Wednesday warned the party leaders to not make any out of turn remarks as it will be treated as "indiscipline" and action will be taken accordingly.

In a tweet, Congress General Secretary Randeep Singh Surjewala, who is also the in-charge of Karnataka, targeting the BJP and media said: "A section of our dear friends of the media have fallen victim to the fake news factory of BJP on formation of the next Congress government in Karnataka"

"We understand the frustration of BJP in being decisively rejected by the brother and sisters of Karnataka bringing an end to the 40 per cent BJP Sarkara".

Reminding the BJP of taking about seven days time for announcing its chief ministerial candidate, Surjewala said: "I hope the same people had questioned Prime Minister Narendra Modi when he took 7 to 10 days in deciding Chief Ministers of Uttar Pradesh, Assam, Goa and many other states. No one then whispered a word on the High Command culture.

"But the same forces and select news outlets have objections to the process of dialogue, discussion, consensus adopted by Mallikarjun Kharge ji, which is in true democratic traditions," he said, referring to the deliberations going on in the party to choose the next Chief Minister.

He said that he "has also advised all Congress leaders to not issue statements on the issue of leadership".

"Any out of turn remarks made from here onwards will be treated as indiscipline and action taken accordingly," he warned.

Surjewala also said that Congress is committed to the welfare of every Kannadiga and will implement the five Congress guarantees in the first meeting of the cabinet.

"A clean, honest and transparent Govt for Karnataka is our duty and we will give the State a new Govt within 48 to 72 hours. We will rebuild Brand Karnataka and transform the dreams of 6.5 Crore Kannadigas into reality," he added.

His remarks came after the process for the selecting the next Karnataka chief minister entered third day of deliberations, even after the party own with a thumping majority by winning 135 out of 224 seats in the southern state.

On Monday, the three central observers of the party had submitted their report of the CLP meeting with Kharge. Kharge since then had held parleys of meeting with senior party leaders including former party chief Rahul Gandhi, party General Secretaries Surjewala and K.C. Venugopal to decide the new Chief Minister.

Kharge had also met state Congress chief D.K. Shivakumar, LoP in the outgoing Assembly Siddaramaiah, as both of them are the front runners for the post.