Karnataka Deputy CM to meet Congress legislators over lunch

BENGALURU: In an attempt to assert himself as the chief of the Congress in the government, Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara on Friday hosted a breakfast meet for his party ministers.  The breakfast meeting came at a time when Congress ministers have been expressing disappointment behind closed doors about Parameshwara not being a strong voice to represent them in the coalition government. Five of the 17 Congress ministers gave the meeting a miss, including Ramesh Jarkiholi, while MP D K Suresh was a surprise guest at the meeting.

D K Shivakumar, Shivanand Patil and Venkataramanappa were the first to arrive for the meet, while U T Khader, Jayamala, R V Deshpande, Shivashankar Reddy and Ramesh Jarkiholi gave it a miss. While Jayamala was in Udupi where Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy is visiting,Deshpande and Shivashankar Reddy are out of the country.  Khader cited ill health as a reason for skipping the meet, while Ramesh Jarkiholi — who has been miffed with the party over the Bealgavi PLD Bank polls — gave the meet a miss. The meeting came at a time when Congress legislature party chief Siddaramaiah is on a Europe tour. K J George, who was to accompany Siddaramaiah on his foreign tour but backed off at the last moment, was also present at the breakfast meeting.

“We discussed about the results of ULB polls and the few councils where we will have to ally with the JD(S),” Parameshwara told the media. 

Parameshwara is expected to host legislators of the Congress on Saturday for lunch. The exercise is an extension of his outreach programme to communicate to his party men that he will stand up for them in the coalition government.