Congress infighting gets worse in Karnataka; several MLAs boycott CLP meet

Disgruntled legislators mount pressure on leadership ahead of cabinet expansion

The CLP meeting was chaired by former chief minister Siddaramaiah The CLP meeting was chaired by former chief minister Siddaramaiah

The Congress party in Karnataka faced a major embarrassment on Tuesday when several legislators, including senior members, chose to boycott its legislature party meeting held at Suvarna Soudha in Belagavi. 

The boycott of MLAs, who had been denied cabinet berths, is seen as an attempt to make their disgruntlement known to the party leadership and mount pressure ahead of the cabinet expansion scheduled on December 22.

The disgruntled senior MLAs, including H.K. Patil, M.B. Patil, Roshan Baig, Ramalinga Reddy, K. Sudhakar, Satish Jarkiholi and Ramesh Jarkiholi, chose to keep away from the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting, but attended the ongoing legislature session in Belagavi.

Municipal administration minister Ramesh Jarkiholi, too, boycotted the CLP meeting, apparently owing to his cold war with water resources minister D.K. Shivakumar. Interestingly, Jarkiholi who skipped the CLP meeting and the assembly session, citing health problems, attended a meeting on reservation in promotion, chaired by Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy at Suvarna Soudha.

Out of the 80 Congress MLAs and 39 MLCs, less than 60 legislators attended the CLP meeting chaired by former chief minister Siddaramaiah. 

KPCC chief Dinesh Gundu Rao tried to play down the issue, saying some of the leaders had informed him of their prior commitments.  

The meeting saw the Congress MLAs complain of difficulties in getting funds for their respective constituencies, hinting at the JD(S) dominance in the coalition government. 

Siddaramaiah, too, admitted that some MLAs had issues with fund allocation. He also said some seniors had raised the issue of according priority to north Karnataka during cabinet expansion and appointments to boards and corporations. 

"The cabinet expansion will take place on December 22. Filling up of six vacancies in the cabinet and appointments to 30 boards and corporations will be carried out," said Siddaramaiah. 

H.K. Patil, who represents Gadag constituency, warned the party against neglecting the legislators from north Karnataka. "People who consider the citizens and leaders from north Karnataka as 'second grade' will face the consequence," said Patil.

The Congress party had earlier planned to invite the chief minister to the CLP meeting to directly interact with the Congress MLAs as many of them have complained of difficulties in getting funds. However, the plan did not take off as the Congress leaders themselves have been battling differences and animosities caused by “unilateral and arbitrary” decisions taken by a handful of leaders within the party—the latest such decision being the appointment of the legislative council chairman, where the party leadership fielded a dark horse. 

With the north-south divide widening and the MLAs from north Karnataka demanding better representation in the cabinet, the cabinet expansion during the weekend might end up in pacifying all or brewing more discontent.  

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