Bengaluru: Although the rebels within the party continue to meet and plot the downfall of the party with insiders saying that disgruntled leader Ramesh Jarkiholi met with B.C. Patil of the Congress and V. Srinivasprasad of the BJP on Friday, Congress loyalists who are miffed at missing the bus once again this Cabinet expansion have decided that they will not up the ante for now.
The Congress MLAs who had hoped to get a berth, have decided not to stake a claim for a ministership for the moment and have left it to the party high command to take a decision on their inclusion, in a future reshuffle. “There is no point in creating a noise about the issue as the state leadership is closed to any appeals. It's better to remain silent as many in the party are not ready to stand up for us, their fel ow legislators,” said a senior party legislator. According to him, everyone was aware that it was former CM Siddaramaiah, who was bent on the induction of the two independent MLAs, R Shankar and Nagesh into the Cabinet “so that he could appear like a saviour of the government.” “But he has done this at the cost of senior Congress legislators, which could prove costly for him in the coming months. Today, Mr Siddaramaiah may have the upper hand in party but things can change. He has created a rift in the Congress between the original leaders and the newcomers, which took a toll on the party in the recently Lok Sabha polls,” the MLA said.
While the “honest Congressmen” who were denied a ministerial position have chosen to remain silent, they have not cried off from seeking an audience with Congress president Rahul Gandhi to bring him up to speed on the Karnataka unit and how Mr Siddaramaiah and AICC general secretary in-charge of the state's affairs, K C Venugopal, were keeping him in the dark, the insider asserted. “Had Mr Siddaramaiah taken every leader into confidence, the party would have won at least eight to 10 seats in the Lok Sabha polls,” the legislator contended.
