Cong-JDS coordination committee to meet tomorrow to discuss turmoil, seat sharing for LS polls
Bengaluru, Jan 23: Karnataka's ruling Congress-JD(S) coalition coordination committee is scheduled to meet on Thursday, amid chinks in the alliance and an alleged bid by the BJP to dislodge the H D Kumaraswamy government.
The meeting gains significance as it comes days after political turmoil that also saw Congress, the senior partner, herd its MLAs to a resort to shield them from BJP's alleged poaching bid, where two lawmakers entered into a brawl, causing embarrassment to the government.
The coalition government's coordination committee meeting,chaired by Siddaramaiah (committee Chairman), is scheduled to take place tomorrow (Thursday) at 5 PM, Siddaramaiah's office said in a statement.
Sources said that the meeting is expected to discuss the upcoming state budget, preparations for the Lok Sabha polls and recent political developments that include the alleged bid by the BJP to topple the government and disgruntlement within the Congress.
Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy,who also holds the Finance portfolio, is scheduled to present the coalition government's second budget on February 8 and the coordination committee is expected to primarily discuss it.
Recently in an interview to PTI, Kumaraswamy had said that he would fulfil his Rs 46,000-crore loan waiver commitment made to farmers "completely" in the budget.
The coordination committee is likely to start preliminary discussions on seat sharing for the Lok Sabha polls and preparations, the sources said.
As the negotiations on seat sharing have already been delayed, the two parties are likely to discuss the procedures to be adapted and fix the timeline to arrive at a decision.
Four dissidents Friday skipped the Congress Legislature Party meeting that was meant to be a show of strength against BJP's alleged toppling bid.
The absentee MLAs have been served show cause notices, asking why action should not be taken against them under the Anti-Defection Law.
Congress in Karnataka Monday suspended its MLA J N Ganesh, who was also slapped with a case of attempt to murder by police based on the complaint by Anand Singh.
Meanwhile, there is also growing demand to expand the coordination committee by inducting state presidents on both Congress and JD(S) into it.
JD(S) state president Vishwanath Wednesday said the coordination committee was incomplete without state presidents of alliance partners in it.
However, Pradesh Congress President Dinesh Gundu Rao has said that the party has to decide on his inclusion into the committee.
According to reports, Siddaramaiah is not in favour of Vishwanath coming on board as both don't enjoy a cordial relationship anymore,as the former Chief Minister suspects the JD(S) chief of having worked for his defeat in Chamundeshwari in Mysuru during the assembly polls.
The coordination committee comprises Kumaraswamy, Deputy Chief Minister and KPCC chief G Parameshwara, Siddaramaiah, Congress General Secretary Venugopal and JD(S) Secretary General Danish Ali.
While Siddaramaiah is the chairman,Ali is the convener of the coalition coordination and monitoring committee.
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A 99-run loss is unacceptable: Hayden blames batting horror
Ahmedabad (PTI): Gujarat Titans' batting coach Matthew Hayden was scathing about their 99-run defeat to Mumbai Indians, blaming a "horror" batting display and poor death bowling for the heavy loss in the IPL.
From being 44/3 in 5.5 overs, MI hammered 73 runs in the last four overs to post a challenging 199/5 here on Monday. In reply, GT were bundled out for 100.
"I expect our margins to be a lot smaller than 100 (99). That is an unacceptable scorecard for our batting unit," the legendary Australian opener told media in the post-match interaction.
"It was just a horrible day for us today. Truth be told, there was nothing good about this day, really, apart from Rabada's performance with the ball. so we've got some work to do, definitely."
GT boast a strong batting line-up in Sai Sudharsan (759 runs), Shubman Gill (717), and Jos Buttler (538). They have also added New Zealand’s explosive Glenn Phillips in the middle order alongside Shahrukh Khan and Rahul Tewatia.
"When you look down at our batting line-up, we've got wonderful players that have to be in a better mindset and better position to take their opportunities. That is our expectations and has been since the conception of this Gujarat Titans franchise...
"So you can't be sitting here and being happy about, a 100-run (99) margin game in a 20-over game. I mean, back in my day, 100 runs was almost a winning total in 50-over cricket!"
The 54-year-old said GT lost the game in the powerplay.
"Well, middle order was undoubtedly exposed today. When they're coming in with six overs, you know that you're in deep trouble. The thing about the power plays is that you can't win it from there, especially in a run chase, but you can definitely lose it, and we lost it in the power play," he said.
Shahrukh (35 off 25 balls) and Tewatia (49 off 42) have not fared well this season and Hayden feels the duo along with Phillips (67 off 54 balls) have been struggling because the top order has been below its best.
"The relevance behind balls faced when you look at, for example, someone like Glenn Phillips -- his record in T20 cricket is an impressive strike rate and you'll take that all day long in the majority of games," Hayden said.
"However, you need an upfront batting effort where you consistently taking the lion's share of the batting. We shouldn't be allowing, Tiwu (Tewatia) or Shahrukh or these guys lots of balls. That's not their role. That's not what they train for."
Hayden said GT has an aggressive and adaptable unit but their execution fell apart on the day.
"We are a very good thinking batting unit. We're not a conservative batting unit. You don't go out and get 200s as often as we do being conservative. But they're an adaptive batting unit. ...they've got their roles and they play them and today they simply didn't.
"So the worry isn't just today about the middle order. It'd be unfair to say that, they were going to go on and score 13 runs an over because by that stage, I felt like as a batting coach, I was on the mast and the boat was sinking."
It was poorly executed bowling effort
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Hayden also pointed to poor execution in the death overs.
"I feel like one-dimensional is very unfair on a world-class bowling attack, but I will take on board it was a poorly executed bowling effort this evening.
"When you look back at those last four overs, that was just a 'horror story' -- 73 off the last four is unacceptable as world-class players. That bowling line-up has to reflect on that performance... It was purely an executional thing."
He added that GT were below par with the ball on a surface that didn’t fully justify the high total.
"We're very average with the ball, firstly, on a wicket that I really felt was probably a 175-type wicket.
"When you look historically at this black soil pitch on No. 5, it's a 200-wicket for the loss of five batters. That's been its winning first-inning score, and today it wasn't that wicket (199/5)... It was visible that it had cracks in it. It was visible that it was up and down.
"So credit also has to go to Tilak Varma, who put in a wonderful performance. It wasn't a cookie-cutter type performance. It was a dominant performance down the ground. He read the play nicely. He was able to pick up and play with power and precision."
Hayden said the chase was still within reach but poor shot selection proved costly.
"And when you reflect on our own batting, we had one side of the ground that was a little more inaccessible than the other, and we lost, what, three wickets into the bigger side of that boundary.
"And it wasn't an impossible total. 200 still is a total that I would back our three world-class players at the top of the order to etch into that a bit more and then allow our more sort of game players. An opportunity to set out their stalls and bat deep into the innings."
