To quell unrest, Congress leadership calls 2 meetings with Karnataka ministers, leaders in Delhi

“In that meeting, party president Mallikarjun Kharge, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Deputy Chief Minister and state Congress president DK Shivakumar, Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister HK Patil, general secretaries KC Venugopal and Randeep Singh Surjewala, who is also the Karnataka in-charge, and some other top functionaries will take part,” a Congress office-bearer told PTI.

The second meeting will take place with the Congress ministers where some senior party MLAs may take part, the office-bearer added.

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Home minister denies dissent

The meetings are taking place in the wake of the Congress Legislative Party (CLP) meeting on Thursday, 27 July remaining inconclusive in addressing the grievances of the party MLAs.

The Congress legislators are reportedly upset that no development works are taking place in their constituencies. They also charged during the meeting that ministers were not giving them time, and were not addressing their problems.

“These MLAs had also carried out a signature campaign which the party leaders did not appreciate. Even Chief Minister Siddaramaiah admonished them during the CLP meeting not to resort to such tactics as it brings a bad name to the government,” another Congress insider said.

However, state Home Minister Dr Parameshwara denied that there was any dissent note during the CLP meeting.

“A few MLAs had written to the chief minister saying that he has to convene a meeting of the legislative party members. The reason was that the previous CLP meeting ended halfway because Congress leader Rahul Gandhi had wished to meet the ministers and MLAs,” Parameshwara told reporters on Friday.

He also said that Siddaramaiah told the MLAs that “writing letters is not proper”.

“The chief minister said if you had told me orally, I would have convened the meeting. He requested that the convention of writing letters should not be continued in future,” Parameshwara said.

Speaking to South First in an interview, Minister for IT&BT and RDPR Priyank Kharge insisted that MLAs were within their rights to write to the Chief Minister. “We have internal democracy. There is no dissidence as portrated by the media. People have voted for us and are asking for work to be taken up and our MLAs also have sought the same. Budget has been presented and funds will start being allocated to departments and it will all be okay,” he said.

The MLAs were worried and upset ever since Deputy Chief Minister Shivakumar told them that there will not be any development works as most of the state’s revenue will be spent on the five guarantees which will cost about ₹60,000 crore annually.

The Congress wants to sustain its leading position in the state till the next Lok Sabha election, which is less than a year away, the party functionary said.

Also read: Karnataka Congress sees stormy LP meet

CLP meeting

The CLP meeting saw several MLAs complaining against Cabinet ministers for not responding to their letters.

It was learnt that Basavaraju V Shivaganga, the MLA from Channagiri, had even written to the chief minister requesting to appoint him as a private secretary or Officer on Special Duty to any Cabinet minister since they were not responding to his letters.

Several other MLAs told the CLP meeting that the ministers were not responding to their letters regarding development activities in their constituencies and the transfer of officials.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is said to have assured the MLAs to consider their transfer requests but declined to allot funds for development works, citing the additional burden the implementation of guarantees has placed on the state exchequer.

Sources said around 30 MLAs, including Basavaraj Rayareddy from Yelburga, CS Nadagouda from Muddebihal, and BR Patil from Aland, raised development issues at the meeting.

The CLP meeting was convened after Patil had sent a letter to the chief minister demanding the latter to hold the talks. At least 25 other MLAs, too, had signed the letter.

(With PTI inputs)