Former chief minister Siddaramaiah, who heads the coordination committee of the Congress-JD(S) coalition government,today rubbished reports of dissent in the Congress and said media reports of it were ‘baseless.’
“There is nothing, no discord. Whatever is coming in the media does not have even an iota of truth…. It is totally baseless,” he told reporters after meeting the Jarkiholi brothers.
Congress has been hit by internal dissent, triggered by a faction of MLAs led by minister Ramesh Jarkiholi, who is locked in a turf war with another minister DK Shivakumar. The Jarkiholi brothers’ activities have led to speculations that BJP was fishing in troubled waters and was in touch with them to dislodge the government.
The siblings are upset over Shivakumar allegedly trying to challenge their supremacy in Belagavi district through MLA Laxmi Hebbalkar. Siddaramaiah said there are six ministerial posts to be filled and many aspirants for the posts, leading to speculation in the media about dissidence in the party.
The former chief minister claimed that BJP was trying to destabilise the government as many MLAs have said that some people from BJP had approached them. “It is true that the BJP is trying to destabilise this government. They have given up all the civility to come to power.
There is no discord in our party,”Siddaramaiah asserted. The chief minister said he along with Satish Jarkiholi and senior party functionaries would leave for Delhi Wednesday to meet party chief Rahul Gandhi to hold discussions on filling the six ministerial posts. Tomorrow, I will not discuss about the cabinet expansion. We will expand the cabinet at an appropriate time…nobody has complained about the delay in expanding the ministry,” he said.
Earlier in the day, Satish Jarkiholi called on chief minister HD Kumaraswamy. Speaking to reporters after the meeting, Jarkiholi said he had discussions about issues pertaining to the development of Belagavi and his community and nominations to the boards, corporations and the legislative council.
Another demand discussed was that one person from the scheduled tribe from Ballari should be made a minister. “There is no discord as being made out,” he said.
PTI
