Bengaluru: Former Chief Minister, Siddaramaiah, who has emerged as the crisis manager of the Congress, on Tuesday claimed there was no dissidence in the party and no legislator or Minister was likely to quit it. Mr Siddaramaiah, who has been talking to unhappy elements within the Congress following his return to the city from his Europe holiday, declared that Congress legislators were “disciplined soldiers” and were unlikely to resign as they had no grievances whatsoever.
“No MLA or Minister will resign from the party. The BJP’s dreams of forming a government with the help of disgruntled Congress legislators will not be fulfilled. The Congress-JD(S) coalition government is safe and stable and will complete its full tenure of five years,” he asserted, speaking to reporters here. Asked about the party resorting once again to 'resort politics' to save its legislators from poaching by the BJP, Mr Siddaramaiah called such reports false and baseless. “All MLAs are bound by the party’s diktat and will not defy it,” he said.
The Kuruba strongman refused to comment on Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy’s claim that some BJP “kingpins” were trying to destablise his government, and advised reporters to put the question to the Chief Minister himself. Mr Siddaramaiah also cautioned against attaching a great deal of importance to Minister Ramesh Jarkiholi and his brother and Yamakanamaradi MLA, Satish Jarkiholi meeting Mr Kumaraswamy at a private hotel in Bengaluru.
On the reported demands of Mr Ramesh Jarkiholi to make an MLA from Ballari a Minister and one of his loyalists a Deputy Chief Minister, Mr Siddaramaiah said there were a number of contenders for Cabinet berths in the government.
Although he listed Mr M B Patil, Mr Bhima Naik and Mr Parameshwar Naik among them, he said it was left to the high command to take a call on the Cabinet expansion While he maintained in response to a question that he was not against the convening of a meeting of the Congress Legislature Party to discuss issues, he added, “When there is no dissidence or differences among our party legislators the question of resolving problems does not arise."
