Bengaluru: The much-hyped meeting between Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president Dr G. Parameshwar to finalise names for appointment of chairpersons to state-owned boards and corporations remained inconclusive on Monday as both leaders could only discuss about fine-tuning the guidelines for such appointments. In the meeting, neither of the leaders exchanged the list of their confidants likely to make it to these posts though a section of the media was abuzz with reports about the appointments.
According to a reliable source in the party, the next meeting between these both leaders would be held soon to deliberate on important issues like who should be appointed to a particular post. The source added that both leaders on Monday only discusses issues like finalising guidelines which were discussed during a meeting of the co-ordination committee chaired by Congress general secretary in-charge of Karnataka, Digvijay Singh, last month.
The source claimed that both Dr Parameshwar and Mr Siddaramaiah seem to have arrived at a conclusion that more weightage should be given to those districts which have not been represented in the cabinet. ‘‘First, the party needs to tackle the problem of regional, caste and social imbalances in these crucial boards and corporations. This is a major threat any party would face when it fails to consider their contribution to strengthening the party,” the source added.
Meanwhile, reacting to reports in a section of the media, energy minister and a member of co-ordination committee, D. K. Shivakumar, clarified that both Dr Parameshwar and Mr Siddaramaiah were working in tandem and in line with the co-ordination committee’s formula. ‘‘Both these leaders have been working in demarcated areas with the Chief Minister interacting with MLAs and Dr Parameshwar deliberating with party leaders such as DCC presidents and other leaders over these appointments. These leaders are not working separately but they are working in their specified areas. Therefore, this cannot be termed as differences of opinion between these two leaders,’’ he added.
Responding to a question, Mr Shivakumar admitted that all unsuccessful aspirants would be unhappy about the fact that they were not appointed chairpersons. “Guidelines need to be fine-tuned in order to assuage the feelings of these 16,000 applicants. That is the challenge which these two leaders are facing,” he added.
