BENGALURU:For the first time after being appointed the member of the Congress Working Committee and meeting AICC President Rahul Gandhi, party legislature party leader Siddaramaiah hosted dinner for his party’s ministers on Wednesday. While Siddaramaiah’s office called the dinner a simple get together, it was essentially an exercise to collect feedback on the functioning of the government. A dinner was hosted a day after district in-charge ministers’ list was released.
Siddaramaiah played host to all 16 ministers of the Congress. “As CLP chief he is collecting feedback on what challenges ministers are facing in the coalition government and how smoothly the departments are running,” said a source who attended the dinner. The meeting of ministers is crucial at a time when murmurs of JD(S) ministers, especially H D Revanna, interfering with other departments — including in the matter of transfers — is troubling the coalition government.
Issues on inter-ministerial schemes, the release of funds for ongoing projects, appointments to boards and corporations apart from the image of the coalition government in the media were brought to the table along with the dinner, sources addded. Minister for Backward Classes Puttaranga Shetty was the last to arrive for the dinner that was hosted at Siddaramaiah’s official residence. The feedback from the meeting is likely to be taken up in the next coordination committee meeting to fix issues, if any, stalling smooth governance, sources close to Siddaramaiah added.