HUBBALLI: Karnataka deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar on Thursday termed the visit of the chairman of the joint committee of Parliament on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill, Jagadambika Pal to the state as a tour of a "drama company" and "politically motivated", with an eye on the upcoming assembly by-polls in the state and election in neighbouring Maharashtra. Charging the JPC Chairman with indulging in political propaganda, Shivakumar, who is also the state Congress president, said it is not a joint parliamentary committee that is visiting, as "only BJP members have come and are doing politics." Pal is visiting Hubballi, Vijayapura and Belagavi, during which he will meet farmers and members of various organisations regarding their lands being claimed by the State Waqf Board.
Bengaluru South MP and JPC member Tejasvi Surya is accompanying him. "It is a drama company. JPC means all the members will have to come, also governments and officials have to be informed.
. Only the chairman has come. He has come on party work along with another MP," Shivakumar said.
Speaking to reporters here, he said: "Is Bommai (MP and former CM Basavaraj Bommai) a member of JPC or is V Somanna the member? Somanna is the union minister, he cannot be part of the JPC. He (Chairman) has come taking applications and is doing political propaganda." Both Bommai and Somanna had met Pal earlier in the day.
Claiming that it was during the Bommai-led BJP government that notices were issued and records amended, Shiv.