Nasheman News : Recent statements of Congress MLAs, including Dr Sudhakar Reddy, have not gone down well with JD(S) legislators and they made no secret of it in the party meeting held on Tuesday.The meeting of all JD(S) MLAs, MLCs and MPs was called by party supremo H D Deve Gowda and Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy to discuss appointments to boards and corporations, as well as working presidents. Bickering about alliance partner Congress, however, stole the limelight. Sources at the meeting suggested that legislators expressed their anger over Congress leaders making public statements against the CM, his family as well as the party.
While Kumaraswamy promised to take up the matter in the next coordination committee meeting, he has also appealed to his party workers to be patient and not retort to taunts or jibes in public.“Appointments to boards and corporations has come as a disappointment to us… but we chose to discuss it in a party forum instead of publicly. We have requested that Siddaramaiah be asked to rein in Congress leaders since we are in this together,” said Sa Ra Mahesh, tourism minister. He added that Deve Gowda will be the only authority to take a call on names for boards and corporation chiefs. JD(S) legislators are also irate over Congress announcing chiefs for boards and corporations that come under JD(S) ministers’ ambit. “Will they accept if JD(S) appoints an adviser to the Home Minister?” Mahesh asked.
Seat-sharing for the Lok Sabha elections with the Congress also came up for discussion in the meeting. “All our leaders are of the opinion that it is best to go to polls with the Congress in the alliance. We think the 1:2 ratio proposed by Deve Gowda is ideal,” said a party source who attended the meeting. Deve Gowda, while speaking of seat-sharing, has expressed his desire to get 10-12 seats of the 28 in Karnataka.
Apart from appointments to 10 boards and corporations, the party is keen on appointing four parliamentary secretaries, one political secretary and a chief whip. Of the four parliamentary secretaries — keeping in mind regional and caste balance — one each from North Karnataka, minority community, OBC and a Dalit is expected to be appointed.
“Gowda requested sitting MLAs to make way for leaders who lost by a thin margin so there is an equal distribution of position, power and recognition, but many MLAs are reluctant,” a party source said. The JD(S) is likely to accommodate eight sitting MLAs and two leaders who lost by a small margin as chiefs of the 10 boards and corporations.
Meanwhile, the Congress suspended supporters of Chikkaballapur MLA Dr Sudhakar for “anti-party activities”. “It is alright for them to air their concerns, but to protest and make a scene when the AICC general secretary was in the city, wasn’t right,” said KPCC chief Dinesh Gundu Rao. He reiterated that any activity hampering the party will not be tolerated.
