BENGALURU: In a swift political development within Congress, Home Minister Dr G Parameshwara, who had planned to host a dinner to SC/ST community legislators, MPs and leaders on Wednesday, cancelled it at the last minute following high command’s instructions.
Parameshwara said the meeting, scheduled to be held at a private hotel, was cancelled following instructions from AICC General Secretary and Karnataka in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala. The next date of the meeting will be informed, he added. Parameshwar consulted CM Siddaramaiah and discussed the next course of action, a source said.
This has come as a setback to the Siddaramaiah camp, which had planned the dinner meeting to counter Deputy Chief Minister and KPCC president DK Shivakumar. Shivakumar, who was abroad, was miffed that his ‘rival’ camp, including Siddaramaiah, took part in a dinner hosted by PWD Minister Satish Jarkiholi on January 2. Parameshwara’s meeting with SC/ST ministers and leaders, if it had happened, would have been a big blow to him. Sensing danger, Shivakumar, who returned to New Delhi, got Surjewala to instruct Parameshwara to cancel the meeting as it would create confusion both in the party and the government, sources added.
“I was abroad and did not know about Parameshwara holding the SC/ST leaders’ meeting. I will get to know after returning to Bengaluru,” Shivakumar told reporters in New Delhi on Tuesday. The latest turn of events gives enough indication that shadow boxing between the two camps in Congress over sharing of power.
Former minister and BJP MLC AH Vishwanath, a Kuruba leader like Siddaramaiah, had alleged that Siddaramaiah is behind the dinner meetings his cabinet colleagues are organising. “Siddaramaiah is getting them to arrange dinner meetings to garner the support of legislators as he does not want to step down. If he is forced to step down, he will finish off Congress. As an alternative, he wishes that the high command nominates a leader of his choice as his successor. But Shivakumar, who had organised the party across the state during the Assembly elections, deserves to be the next CM. In every village, Shivakumar has at least 50 party workers who back him, unlike Siddaramaiah who has only sycophants around him,” he charged.
Leader of Opposition in the Assembly R Ashoka taunted that Siddaramaiah camp members have started giving him farewell parties as his stepping down from the CM’s post has become imminent.