Dissent! Rahul Gandhi sos, Siddaramaiah hotfoots it from Malaysia
He went abroad Monday to attend his close friend's marriage.
Bengaluru: Acting on the directions of Congress president Rahul Gandhi, former Chief Minister and Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Siddaramaiah cut short his foreign tour and arrived here on Thursday in the wake of reports about disgruntled party legislators engaging in rebel activity.
Sources close to Mr Siddaramaiah told Deccan Chronicle that their leader was earlier supposed to arrive on Saturday and then attend the winter session of the legislature being held in Belagavi from December 17.
Mr Siddaramaiah had left Bengaluru on Monday for Malaysia to attend the marriage of his close friend.
After reaching there, he got a call from Mr Gandhi asking him to be in Bengaluru at the earliest following reports of ministerial aspirants holding secret meetings to discuss their future course of action.
To prevent any awkward move by these Congress MLAs over delayed cabinet expansion, Mr Gandhi felt Mr Siddaramaiah's services were needed and directed him to cut short his Malaysia tour.
The sources said that Mr Gandhi has more confidence in Mr Siddaramaiah than in any other leader in the Karnataka Congress unit.
The Congress President had seen how the CLP leader handled the situation when municipal administration minister Ramesh Jarkiholi and his brother Satish Jarkiholi raised the banner of revolt.
At that time, Mr Siddaramaiah not only defused the tension but also prevented a major embarrassment for the Congress.
The state cabinet is likely to be expanded on December 22 to accommodate six Congress MLAs in the Council of ministers and others as chairmen of various boards and corporations.
However, reports on the expansion likely to be postponed till the Lok Sabha polls, have angered the MLAs forcing them to voice their their grievances in public embarrassing the grand old party.
The first and foremost task before Mr Siddaramaiah will be to make sure his party MLAs keep quiet at least till the winter session is over.
A majority of these legislators owe allegiance to the former Chief Minister and are likely to listen to him.