From Cabinet to chaos: Congressmen spoil the party

Bengaluru: The selection of Congress ministers for the new JD(S)-Congress coalition government rain into a storm of protest across Karnataka with many leaders including several Cabinet aspirants coming out in the open to criticise the state leadership, with the target of their ire being KPCC president Dr G. Parameshwar and former CM Siddaramaiah, for not considering them for inclusion and instead, inducting several new faces on Wednesday.

It however remains to be seen if they will take the extreme step of quitting the Congress at this juncture when the only option available to them is to join the BJP and resign their seats to seek a fresh mandate. Congress MLAs Satish Jarkiholi, M.B. Patil, Dr D. Sudhakar and M.T.B. Nagaraj were among those who spoke out against the state leadership during a series of meetings held in the city while supporters of former minister R. Roshan Baig disrupted traffic on Queens Road where the KPCC office is located.  

Besides these, the blockades of roads and the holding of closed-door meetings by the 'dissident' leaders to chalk out their future strategies continued a day after the cabinet expansion.  Prominent among the unhappy Congressmen is the vocal Mr M.B. Patil who was invited by Siddaramaiah to his residence on Thursday morning. Mr Patil turned emotional as he poured out his woes before Mr Siddaramaiah. "At least, the party should have been courteous enough to call me and tell me that I cannot be accommodated. Instead, I was unceremoniously dropped from the list of ministers," he said.

Later he told reporters that he was not a 'second-class citizen' virtually hinting that he would not accept a berth in the second round with six berths allotted to the Congres yet to be filled. Mr Patil also held a meeting with Satish Jarkiholi, Dr Sudhakar and M.T.B. Nagaraj at his residence and reportedly told the other leaders that the party could not hold him solely responsible for the Congress debacle in the polls in north Karnataka.