The dissidence that erupted in the governing coalition, particularly in the Congress, after the State Cabinet expansion intensified on Thursday as legislators who failed to make it to the ministry rallied around senior leader and former Minister M.B. Patil to chalk out a strategy to take their grievances to the party’s central leadership.
Disappointed legislators held parleys at Mr. Patil’s residence here to express solidarity and work as a pressure group to seek “justice” from All India Congress Committee president Rahul Gandhi.
Pacifying efforts
As the number of dissident MLAs started swelling, the party leadership initiated damage-control exercise, with Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) working president Dinesh Gundu Rao and senior Minister Krishna Byre Gowda rushing to Mr. Patil’s residence to pacify the group.
“Party leadership will redress the grievances of those who are sulking after the Cabinet expansion. They will be accommodated in the next Cabinet expansion,” Mr. Rao assured the dissidents. Mr. Gowda appealed to Mr. Patil not to take any hasty decision and said the party leadership would pacify the group.
However, both Mr. Rao and Mr. Gowda had to face the ire of the dissidents and retreat, sources said.
Meanwhile, KPCC president and Deputy Chief Minister G. Parameshwara, Mr. Rao, and Ministers R.V. Deshpande, D.K. Shivakumar, Mr. Gowda, and K.J. George held a meeting to find ways to quell the dissidence.
Six berths vacant
With six Cabinet berths vacant in the Congress quota, Dr. Parameshwara said efforts would be made to satisfy disgruntled MLAs by accommodating them in the next expansion.
Sources said party’s central leaders told the State leaders to initiate talks with dissidents and ask them to end rebel activity or face disciplinary action. It is said that by not considering the heavyweights for the ministry, the central leadership has sought to communicate its unhappiness to the State’s leadership over its failure to gauge the electoral mood in the State, which forced the Congress to form the coalition government.
MLAs such as M.T.B. Nagaraj, R. Roshan Baig, Satish Jarkiholi, B.C. Patil, K. Sudhakar, and B.K. Sangameshwara held a series of meetings at Mr. M.B. Patil’s residence and are believed to have decided to seek an appointment with Mr. Gandhi. Mr. M.B. Patil also met the former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and reportedly expressed his anger for having denied him a Cabinet berth.