Ahead of the proposed Cabinet expansion in Karnataka to douse the fire, the Coalition Government led by Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy is in fresh trouble as senior Congress leaders have hit out at the leadership. Both the coalition partners — the JD(S) and the Congress —are reeling under defeat and drubbing in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls by the BJP and the Modi wave.
Senior party leader Ramalinga Reddy hit out at the top brass, blaming lack of coordination between seniors and the leadership for the humiliating loss in the State. He took to Twitter to attack the Congress leadership and spoke against the likely induction of Independent legislators into the Cabinet.
Reddy, however, expressed his disregard at not being among the preferred candidates for a ministerial berth. “I’m a seven-time MLA but they are neglecting me. This is also the case for senior leaders like HK Patil, Roshan Baig and others,” he said, adding he was not against the induction of new members but neglecting seniors while promoting newcomers was unfair.
Reddy lashed out at Rahul Gandhi, holding him responsible for the massive debacle in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
He also blamed senior Ministers in the JDS-Congress Government for the defeat alleging that they have no organisational vision and passion to take the party forward.
He asked the high command to “set things right” and also said party must address the fact that seniors have been ignored. He also suggested that Ministers who failed to deliver in the Lok Sabha polls should be relegated to organisational positions in the party.
As part of the plan to save the coalition Government the Congress and the JDS have been mulling over a Cabinet expansion in order to induct R Shankar and H Nagesh both Independents among others to halt the BJP from increasing its strength in the Assembly.
The supporters of Reddy have protested in front of the Congress office demanding a Cabinet birth for their leader.
After the clean sweep in the Lok Sabha polls by the saffron party, the coalition Government in Karnataka is in deep water. The BJP had also won one of the two Assembly seats for which bypolls were held simultaneously. With that win, the party has 105 MLAs in the 224-member Karnataka Assembly, eight short of a simple majority.
In another major development, JD(S) State president H Vishwanath has resigned from his post, accepting moral responsibility for the defeat. In a letter to Deve Gowda, he said, “It is my moral responsibility... I have raised issues about the coordination committee. The people of Karnataka are enjoying the alliance Government. The coordination committee is headed by Siddaramaiah but both partners should be a part of it. Even the common minimum programme has not been implemented.” He directly blamed Siddaramaiah and submitted his resignation to Deve Gowda who had humiliating defeat in Tumakuru by the BJP candidate Basavaraju.