BENGALURU: As disgruntled Congress legislators continue to keep the coalition government on the edge, Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy has yet again stepped in to resolve Congress’ internal crises and ward off any threat to his government.
While the Congress leaders failed to rein in former minister and MLA Ramesh Jarkiholi, who has been threatening to resign along with his supporters, the CM intervened and held a meeting with him. The CM also held a meeting with another disgruntled MLA from Ballari district B Nagendra. “They are in constant touch with the CM and there is no threat to the government,” sources in the CMO said, confirming Kumarswamy’s meetings with the Congress MLAs.
According to sources, during his meeting with Jarkiholi, the CM is said to have told him that he would only be too happy to accommodate him as a minister from the JDS quota as the two slots from the party’s quota are still vacant.
Sources said Ramesh is said to have assured the CM that he would not do anything to put his government in danger.
The CM’s meetings with the sulking Congress legislators came at a time when the state Congress leaders were trying to dissuade Ramesh from resigning from the party. Ramesh had accused the Congress leaders of not taking him into confidence before the Lok Sabha elections and even failing to resolve the internal issues in the Belagavi unit of the party.
During the elections, Ramesh had not campaigned for the party candidates. Congress state president Dinesh Gundu Rao, however, said the Congress has not done any injustice to Ramesh, who was the cabinet minister in the government. Rao exuded confidence that Ramesh will not leave the Congress party.
Sources said disgruntled Congress leaders are unlikely to take any drastic step before the Lok Sabha election results are announced on May 23. While the coalition partners seem to have warded off an immediate threat to the government, unhappy Congress MLAs looking up to Kumaraswamy to resolve internal party issues would diminish former CM Siddaramaiah’s stature and authority as the head of coalition coordination committee and Congress Legislature Party(CLP), sources said.
Wherever some trouble has erupted in Congress over past 11 months and threatened to get out of control, the CM has stepped in to present himself as trouble-shooter. He had stepped into resolving crisis in Congress days after government formation when some MLAs had raised a banner of revolt and he was in touch with the Congress MLAs, who were reportedly camping in Mumbai ahead of the budget session