BENGALURU: With a sulking state president, who is unhappy at not being consulted on candidates for the urban local body polls, Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy is likely to take over the post, to carry out some firefighting and maintain morale within the Janata Dal Secular (JDS).
On Monday, Adagur H Vishwanath, the current JDS state president, made it clear at a meeting that he was considering resigning from the post, as he was concerned about candidates being chosen without his inputs.
Sources said that Vishwanath is expected to resign from the post on Tuesday, during a legislators meeting that the JDS has called for in Kumaraswamy’s house in the afternoon. The timing of the meeting, keeping in line with the JDS’ belief in inauspicious timings, is at 4.40 pm, ten minutes after the 90 minute long, inauspicious Rahu Kala ends.
For some time now, there has been some unhappiness in the party, after the drubbing they received at the hands of the BJP in the Lok Sabha elections, insiders said. According to them, the party is looking for a dynamic state president who can turn the tide in their favour. In order to achieve this, Kumaraswamy seems to be the current favourite.
The post will not be a new one for the Chief Minister as he has served as the state chief earlier. There is also some speculation that Vishwanath could be accommodated into the state cabinet sometime in the future. Kumaraswamy had recently held a meeting with senior Congress leaders including Siddaramaiah on the possibility of inducting two independent MLAs in the state cabinet.
Additionally, it is largely believed that three current ministers -- C S Puttaraju, Sa Ra Mahesh and D C Thammanna -- could be in for hard times in the near future because of their failure to deliver and also because of the shock defeat of Kumaraswamy’s son Nikhil, from Mandya in the recently concluded parliamentary polls.