Siddaramaiah’s men: We’ll have last laugh

Bengaluru: Chief Minister, Siddaramaiah's camp is all set to turn the tables on KPCC president, Dr G. Parameshwar, in the event of the party performing badly in the forthcoming elections. The gameplan of the CM's camp is that in any case, Dr Parameshwar would not like to lose the KPCC chief's post at a juncture when party central leaders have not heard his pleas to include him in the cabinet till date.

Speaking to the Deccan Chronicle, a senior leader in the CM's camp reasoned that Dr Parameshwar could not afford to keep opposing Chief Minister, Siddaramaiah as he was aware of the fact that party central leaders had developed an immense liking for Mr Siddarmaiah's farsightedness and leadership skills.

"Distribution of the Lok Sabha seats in the state is a case in point, where, except for one or two seats apart from the nine sitting MPs, it was the CM's words that carried weight among party leaders in Delhi. So, Dr Parameshwar knows that he cannot afford to antagonise Mr Siddaramaiah any more, by making statements that would hurt the party's prospects," the source explained.

The source added that Mr Siddaramaiah was trying to link performance based incentives not only to Dr Parameshwar but also to other ministers and senior leaders as well. "The party performance in Hyderabad-Karnataka region in all five constituencies will be attributed to Railway minister, M. Mallikarjun Kharge and former chief minister, N. Dharam Singh as they were the responsible for getting implemented Article 371 of the Constitution on special status for their region. Dr Parameshwar will be responsible for the two SC reserved seats of Chitradurga and Bijapur apart from Tumkur Lok Sabha seat, which is his home constituency. In Coastal Karnataka, the responsibility will fall on senior ministers Ramanath Rai, Vinaykumar Sorake and U.T. Khader along with party veteran B. Janardhan Poojary. Apart from this, RDPR minister, H.K. Patil will be made responsible for ensuring victory in Hubli-Dhrawad along with Haveri, where his cousin and senior leader, D.R. Patil is a candidate," the source claimed.