Mangaluru: Though BJP’s MP candidate Nalin Kumar Kateel has been alleging that Congress leaders M Veerappa Moily and Chidambaram are responsible for merging Vijaya Bank with Bank of Baroda, Congress’s district spokesperson Mahabala Marla rubbished the allegation, claiming that Nalin is trying to hush up his own mistakes.

Addressing the reporters at Congress’s election office on Wednesday, April 3, Mahabala Marla said, though Narasimhan committee had proposed the move of merging the Banks in 1991, it has not mentioned particular names of the banks in its report. But, the BJP government took the decision of merging Vijaya Bank and Dena Bank with the Bank of Baroda. It was a hasty decision of the government and there must be some hidden agenda behind this, ” he said.

Slamming Nalin Kumar Kateel for his silence over merger, Mahabala Marla said, Nalin has failed to convince the government to prevent the merger of Vijaya Bank, despite Vijaya Bank being pride of the coastal region.

He did not take delegation to New Delhi and attempted to convince the government not to merge the profit-making Vijaya Bank with any other Bank. If he had taken the lead, then merger would not have been possible, he said.