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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Power struggle in ruling Cong has 'created massive confusion' in Karnataka: BJP leader Ashoka
Bengaluru (PTI): BJP leader R Ashoka on Friday claimed that the ongoing power struggle between Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his deputy D K Shivakumar has created massive confusion in Karnataka.
He remarked that the proverb “when two people fight, the third one benefits” has come true, as AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge is also now making efforts to become Chief Minister.
Speaking to reporters here, Ashoka said the entire government has turned into a house of confusion due to the alleged power tussle.
Kharge’s new statement has only added to the chaos, he said.
Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge had on Friday said that no date has been fixed yet to discuss possible leadership change in Karnataka.
This came a day after Kharge said there was no change of CM in Karnataka "for now" and that the leadership issue in the state would be resolved soon.
The BJP leader said that Kharge too has aspirations and that he was cheated earlier.
"Perhaps he has received a green signal from the Congress high command to become CM. Everyone is already saying Kharge should become CM. Kharge himself has declared, “I am ready to become CM.” Despite many attempts in the past, he never became CM. Now he is trying to seize the opportunity," the Leader of Opposition in the state assembly said.
According to him, the situation in Congress has perfectly become a case of “two people fighting, third one benefits.”
