Congress releasing Cauvery water to Tamil Nadu for political gains from ally DMK: Kumaraswamy

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Congress for what he called trading the Cauvery water with Tamil Nadu to strengthen the Opposition alliance INDIA it has spearheaded to take on the NDA in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. The former CM attacked the Congress saying his state was releasing water to Tamil Nadu to give a fresh lease of life to INDIA, blatantly sacrificing Karnataka’s interests in a sign of betrayal to local farmers.

Tamil Nadu’s ruling DMK is a long ally of the Congress, and an important partner in the new political bloc the Congress has stitched together. Former chief minister Basavaraj Bommai too said the ruling party’s actions was giving rise to a suspicion that there were some “political interests” at play here.

The Congress government, Kumaraswamy said, had bowed before the neighbouring state to achieve its political goal of winning more seats in the general elections. The Congress, he added, had hurt the self-respect of Kannadigas by surrendering before Tamil Nadu though the latter walked out of the Cauvery River Management Authority meeting and had moved the Supreme Court over Cauvery River water sharing.

The former CM took exception to Shivakumar’s reported comments that the Centre controlled the release of water from the KRS reservoir, wondering if the Congress high command decided it. He urged the government to stop release of water forthwith and, impress upon the Centre to invoke the distress formula citing the scanty rainfall.

The Opposition BJP and JDS have stepped up attacks on the Congress for being 'accommodating’ with Tamil Nadu over the Cauvery water release. Shivakumar, however, has denied the allegations and maintained on Thursday that the state government had little say on release of water from KRS reservoir as it came