BENGALURU: Expansion of Karnataka cabinet has been put on hold yet again and ministerial berth aspirants of the Congress are not liking it one bit.
Irate with another delay, this time due to the announcement of bypolls, three-time legislator from Hirekerur B C Patil took to Twitter on Sunday expressing his angst and referring to the party as being dictatorial.
Speaking to The New Indian Express, Patil added that deferring of expansion was an insult to those who have worked for the party.
“Dragging the expansion of cabinet in Karnataka is an act of insult to legislators, killing democracy, upholding the dictatorship in the name of party. @INCKarnataka @dineshgrao @RahulGandhi @siddaramaiah @DrParameshwara (SIC),” Patil tweeted creating a furore.
While the party is not considering Patil’s tweet as an anti-party activity just yet, the senior leadership is expected to send a strong message to all its legislators. “I haven’t said anything against the party or indulged in anti-party activities. I am a legislator and not a slave to anybody. I have my fundamental right to express my opinion and thoughts,” Patil said.
Patil made headlines in May this year after he claimed that B S Yeddyurappa, then Chief Minister who was scrambling to gather numbers, and Muralidhar Rao of the BJP were pressurising him to abandon the Congress.
He had made the purported phone recordings public. Patil was also one of the dissenting MLAs who rebelled against the Congress for not inducting him into the party.
“I have worked tirelessly for the party and every time they delay expansion it is as if we have to go begging for posts and those making the decisions feel like gods granting boons. As a legislator, I feel insulted,” Patil said.
“We will talk to Patil about his concerns,” said KPCC chief Dinesh Gundu Rao.
While the party is fully aware of the disappointment of its legislators, senior leaders believe the delay is in the best interest of the party.
“Ballari parliamentary seat will be at stake if we expand the cabinet. There are too many aspirants from there and anyone feeling left out can create a problem,” said a senior party legislator. The Congress has been tied down with dissent by aspirants and the Election Commission announcing dates for by-polls to three parliamentary and two assembly constituencies came as just the excuse that the party needed.
“General Secretary (K C Venugopal) will be in Bengaluru soon and we will discuss with him what the next course of action should be. The announcement of elections has stalled cabinet expansion. Had it been just assembly bypolls, there needn’t have been a delay; there are parliamentary constituencies too. We will talk to Patil about his concerns,” said Dinesh Gundu Rao, President, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee.
Patil added that the inaccessibility of the high command to legislators like him is another issue the party has to deal with. Many legislators like M T B Nagaraj and Nagendra have made trips to Delhi but haven’t been able to secure an appointment with party president Rahul Gandhi despite several attempts.