Congress Central leaders ask Karnataka Ministers to unite and stand by Chief Minister
AICC general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal, AICC general secretary in charge of Karnataka Randeep Singh Surjewala, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, and Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar addressing a press conference in Bengaluru on Sunday.
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
As the Congress government is expecting Raj Bhavan to respond to a request for sanction of prosecution against Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Central leaders were in Bengaluru on Sunday to confabulate with top government functionaries and send a message of unity in the Cabinet.
AICC general secretary (organisation) K.C. Venugopal and AICC general secretary in charge of Karnataka Randeep Singh Surjewala met Ministers apart from holding discussions with Mr. Siddaramaiah.
Their visit came less than a week after the party high command summoned Mr. Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar to discuss political developments in the State and party affairs. During the Delhi visit, the party functionaries had discussed the show-cause notice issued to the Chief Minister by the Governor on alleged irregularities in the distribution of sites by MUDA. Though the Chief Minister’s wife is a beneficiary of the 50:50 scheme envisaged for land losers, he has said that there has been no irregularities in it.
While the council of Ministers advised Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot to withdraw the notice and reject the request for sanction of prosecution last week, the party is expecting the Governor to act adversely in the next few days, party sources said.
Currently, the BJP and the JD(S) are taking out a padayatra from Bengaluru to Mysuru seeking resignation of the Chief Minister
“It is unfortunate that the Governor has become an instrument in a political conspiracy. We will not allow the conspiracy of the BJP-JD(S) to destabilise the Congress government to succeed. We have decided to fight this unitedly and we will explain facts to the people. The BJP brought down the Congress-JD(S) government in 2018 and it is targeting the Congress government again. To protect the family members of its leaders, the BJP and the JD(S) are targeting a democratically elected government,” Mr. Vengugopal told presspersons.
“Our government is being destabilised since our guarantee schemes have affected them politically. We have no issues if a legal recourse is sought on the allegations. Instead, it is not right to make repeated allegations against Mr. Siddaramaiah and to target him,” he said.
Sources said that the two leaders sent a message to the Ministers to show solidarity with the Chief Minister on the issue. While the party has assured the Chief Minister of providing legal assistance in this case, it also wants the Cabinet to show solidarity that would help the party sail through this crisis, sources said.
Warning to Ministers
Apart from discussions on current political developments in the State, sources said, the Cabinet Ministers have been asked to change their mindset and travel across the State.
“During the visit of Madhusudan Mistry-led committee, legislators and leaders alike had spoken about a lack of coordination between Ministers, party functionaries, and legislators. In general, Ministers have been told to change themselves. By October, six to eight Ministers could be dropped over performance,” sources said.
The party believes that it lost six to eight seats where it could have won owing to a lack of coordination and a lack of interest in the party cadre, and that it had been conveyed along with reasons to the Mistry committee, sources said. “The two Central leaders were here as part of the follow up.”
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