At dinner meet, Siddaramaiah gets feedback from his loyalists

Bengaluru: He may no longer be the chief minister but former chief minister, Siddaramaiah seems to have lost none of his clout  as far as the functioning of the coalition government is concerned. 

On Wednesday, Siddaramaiah hosted a  dinner for Congress ministers in the coalition government at  his residence, Cauvery and reportedly elicited their views on the growing differences between coalition partners JD(S) and Congress on various issues including the transfers of officials. 

Sources said  Siddaramaiah was pestered by party MLAs particularly from the city to safeguard their interests. Playing to the gallery, the Congress  MLAs and ministers spoke about the not so sufficient  allocation of funds for programmes started by Siddaramaiah when he was CM. But their real intention, sources said, was to get the officers of their choice transferred to their constituencies.

A week back, Siddaramaiah had sent three party MLAs from the city, Munirathna, Bhairati Basavaraj and S.T. Somashekhar to Delhi where these legislators met  AICC president, Rahul Gandhi and reportedly briefed him about Karnataka politics. 

"Probably, after getting inputs from the MLAs, Siddaramaiah decided to host the dinner for Congress ministers," sources in the party said.