Mangalore: Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president G. Parameshwara said here on Tuesday that all the 71 Congress MLAs in the State are ready to resign to protect the interests of the State.

Talking to presspersons during a visit to overview the preparations in the city before All-India Congress Committee president Sonia Gandhi’s arrival in the city on October 18, Dr. Parameshwara said the Cauvery issue was beyond politics and the State Congress had pledged support to the State government’s decision not to release water to Tamil Nadu.

However, he slammed the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government for politicising the issue and for alleging that the Congress has not supported it. “A similar situation arose when S.M. Krishna was the Chief Minister, Jagadish Shettar was the Opposition leader and the NDA government was at the Centre. When Mr. Krishna refused to release water, the BJP did not support the State government then,” Dr. Parameshwara recalled.

He added that the BJP had unilaterally decided to approach the Cauvery River Authority with the claim that they could release 10,000 cusecs for a few days in September.

“There was no all-party meet or discussion about the issue. How can they return to Bangalore and claim the State has been cheated? And how can they accuse us of indifference in the issue?”

Elaborating on Ms. Gandhi’s visit, the KPCC president said she would address a gathering of elected Congress representatives from the gram panchayat-level to the district-level from Dakshina Kannada, Udupi, Hassan, Chikmagalur and Kodagu districts.-The Hindu