No discontent in Congress: Siddaramaiah
Bengaluru, Dec 23: Amid growing dissent in the Congress following the Karnataka cabinet rejig a day ago, former chief minister Siddaramaiah on Sunday set aside any rebellion in the party.
Two legislators, Ramesh Jarkiholi and Independent R Shankar, were dropped in Saturday's cabinet expansion. Ramesh's brother, Satish Jarkiholi, M B Patil and six others were inducted.
In an apparent bid to contain dissidence, Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy-led coalition government appointed nine parliamentary secretaries and made 19 MLAs chairpersons of various boards and corporations.
A day after being dropped, Belagavi strongman Ramesh Jarkiholi has gone into hibernation, much to the discomfort of the Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) government.
An audio clip has surfaced, where the Gokak MLA purportedly said he and others would resign and people would get to see the changes within a week.
Siddaramaiah, who is a coordinator of the ruling coalition, ruled out the possibility of any MLAs resigning.
"There is no discontent in the party and nobody will resign. His (Ramesh Jarkiholi) brother (Satish) has been made minister from his family," Siddaramaiah told reporters in Jamakhandi.
Jarkiholi, who had been unhappy ever since the coalition government took over, is learnt to have conducted a meeting with his confidant MLAs to decide his future course of action. He was not available for comments despite several calls and messages to him.
More vocal with the denial of ministerial berth was Congress MLA R Ramalinga Reddy, who alleged that injustice was meted out to him.
"I have been denied a post for being senior. If that was the parameter for not making me minister, then why that is not applicable to Parameshwara (deputy chief minister), D K Shivakumar (water resource minister), Krishna Byregowda (law and panchayat minister) and a few others?" an upset Reddy told PTI.
Reddy even claimed that there were four people who took the decision of dropping him. Siddaramaiah trashed the charge, saying the decision was solely taken by the Congress president Rahul Gandhi.
Another disgruntled voice came from Chikkaballapur MLA Dr K Sudhakar. "I feel that few districts are over-represented, while few have been unrepresented. Especially on the part of the Congress, Vokkaligas (a dominant community) have been left out. The Vokkaliga community has not got its due share, what it has supposed to get in the ministry."
While clarifying that he was a Congress loyalist, Sudhakar was of the opinion that the party cannot afford to have a disgruntled Ramesh Jarkiholi and felt that its fallout would be serious.
To cash in on the rumblings in the Congress, the BJP said its doors were open to receive anybody willing to embrace its party and ideology.
"We have no connection with the developments happening in the Congress. It's up to them to keep their flocks together. We will not contact anybody so long as they (MLAs) are in the Congress, but everybody is welcome whoever wishes to join us accepting out party and ideology," BJP MP Shobha Karandlaje told reporters.
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Constitution amendment bill defeat was BJP’s first embarrassment in Parliament: Margaret Alva
Bengaluru (PTI): Senior Congress leader Margaret Alva on Monday said that the constitution amendment bill's defeat in the Lok Sabha on April 17 was the first embarrassment faced by the BJP-led government in Parliament.
She also alleged that the BJP has no real concern regarding women’s reservation.
The opposition INDIA bloc defeated the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill that sought to facilitate the implementation of women's reservation by expanding the strength of the Lok Sabha, apart from making changes to delimitation.
"This is the first embarrassment and defeat faced by the NDA government in the Lok Sabha," the former Governor of Gujarat and Rajasthan said in a press conference here.
According to her, the women’s reservation has been under discussion since the time of former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi.
"During Rajiv Gandhi’s tenure, a 14-member committee was formed, and I was appointed as its chairperson. We prepared a report after studying what needed to be done to enhance the dignity of women across 12 sectors. This was submitted to the government in 1989,” Alva, 84-year-old veteran Congress leader, said.
She said political empowerment for women was emphasised in that report, without which, empowerment in any other sphere is not possible.
“Many people in Parliament used to question me — should we vacate seats for women and stay at home cooking? Why insist on this? Has anyone written these seats in your name? This debate has been ongoing since 1975,” Alva explained.
The Congress leader said Rajiv Gandhi had introduced 33 per cent reservation for women in local bodies.
“At that time, all opposition parties united and defeated the Bill,” she pointed out.
Again, during the tenure of former Prime Minister late P V Narasimha Rao, the 33 per cent reservation Bill in local bodies was passed.
“It was the Congress party that first introduced women’s reservation. Now they are falsely accusing us of being anti-women,” Alva charged.
In 2023, the Women’s Reservation Bill was passed with much fanfare, but it was not immediately implemented.
According to her, a condition was imposed for its implementation that it would be enforced based on census data.
"Once it is in the statute book, what is preventing its implementation? Two years for the census and another two years for delimitation — this means it cannot be implemented by 2029. It was not given in 2024, and there is no possibility even in 2029," Alva charged the BJP-led government at the Centre.
The Congress leader said the BJP is saying that the Bill can be implemented based on the 2011 Census, but when the same suggestion was made in 2023, the BJP rejected it.
On increasing the Lok Sabha seats by 50 per cent, she sought to know the basis for it.
“Where did this (idea) come from? Whose advice was taken? Was it decided by the RSS? Or ordered by a court?” Alva asked.
The former union minister said the Constitution amendment bill, which was defeated on April 17 appears to favour certain North Indian states.
“We pay taxes, but they receive greater benefits and allocations. If seats are increased by 50 per cent based on their calculations, we would get only 14 additional seats, while they would get 40. How is this fair?” she questioned.
While 298 members voted in support of the bill in Lok Sabha, 230 MPs voted against it. Out of 528 members who voted, the bill required 352 votes for a two-third majority.
According to the Constitution (131st Amendment) Bill, Lok Sabha seats were to be increased to "operationalise" the women's reservation act before the 2029 parliamentary polls, following a delimitation exercise based on the 2011 Census.
Seats were also to be increased in state and Union territory Assemblies to accommodate 33 per cent reservation for women.
