Won't support your efforts to help Karnataka: Goa Congress netas to Manohar Parrikar

Belagavi: Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar may have succumbed to pressure from his party to give in to Karnataka in the Mahadayi row, but he has come under attack by the opposition Congress party in his state for his new softened attitude to his neighbouring state.

Strongly opposing his letter to Karnataka BJP president B.S. Yeddyurappa offering to release water for drinking to the state, top leaders of the Goa Congress party have said they will not under any circumstance support his efforts to help Karnataka.

But in Belagavi, a team of Bharatiya Janata Party leaders headed by Member of Parliament, Suresh Angadi accused Congress president, Rahul Gandhi and former president, Sonia Gandhi for complicating the Mahadayi issue.

“It is because Sonia Gandhi issued a statement last year in Goa that a drop of water should not be released to Karnataka under the Mahadayi project, that all Congress leaders of Goa are against release of water to the state,” they contended.

Denying that the BJP was using the Mahadayi dispute for its political ends owing to the coming assembly elections in the state, Mr Angadi welcomed Mr Parrikar’s gesture. He recalled that it was the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government which first gave in principle permission for the Mahadayi project in 2002 but it was halted for various reasons later.