Venugopal meets Congress leaders to end crisis

BENGALURU: Stumped by the back-to-back resignations of MLAs Anand Singh and Ramesh Jarkiholi, AICC general secretary and in-charge of party affairs in Karnataka KC Venugopal has gone into damage control mode.

Venugopal has met with senior Congress leaders in a bid to look for ways and means to end this air of uncertainty that has been challenging the coalition for the past 13 months almost on a daily basis.
On Tuesday morning, he visited former opposition leader in the Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge. He said the Congress respects “discipline and loyalty” and the party will not hesitate to take action against “acts of indiscipline”.

Later speaking to media persons, he said, “Some say there are 16 MLAs with them, and 18 MLAs, 20 MLAs, 22 MLAs who are on the verge of leaving the party. That is not true as they have been saying it for the past 13 months.’’
Congress sources said, “For many ministerial aspirants, it is time to make hay. Many have been using this opportunity to gain something for themselves. See how many of them, who were holed up in Mumbai, returned only after the Yeddyurappa audio-gate scandal in which he was openly offering money to jump ship. See how they have ruthlessly pushed their case.’’

Another source said a senior BJP minister was monitoring the development closely, and the thumb rule is not to do anything directly and sully their image. As long as the MLAs voluntarily resign appearing to sound disillusioned, it is fine. Anand Singh’s lines when interviewed sounded rehearsed, they pointed out. “None of the MLAs resigning should directly talk to Yeddyurappa or be seen anywhere with him or near his Dhavalagiri residence. They want this operation to be clinical,” said a source.