Bengaluru: Seeing the BJP as a major threat to the coalition government in Karnataka post the Lok Sabha results, senior leaders of the Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) went into a huddle Tuesday to discuss counter strategies to stop the saffron party from destablising their 11-month old government.
AICC general secretary in-charge of Karnataka affairs, K C Venugopal, former Chief Minister, Siddaramaiah, Deputy Chief Minister, Dr G Parameshwar and Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president, Dinesh Gundu Rao met Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy at a hotel Tuesday night for over an hour and reportedly assured him there was no threat to the coalition government from the Congress.
They informed him that Congress president, Rahul Gandhi, had instructed his partymen to stop the demand for making Mr Siddaramaiah CM again, taking serious note of the complaints of both JD(S) supremo, H D Deve Gowda and Mr Kumaraswamy against them.
Responding to the Chief Minister's concerns over the open rebellion by Congress MLA, Ramesh Jarkiholi, Mr Venugopal is said to have assured him that no Congress MLA would go with him .
At the end of the discussion, Mr Kumaraswamy appeared to be reassured that all was well in the coalition government and he could bank on the Congress' support. Both parties also agreed to keep an eye on their legislators to make sure they did not succumb to the BJP's Operation Lotus should it be revived post the results, going by sources.
Congress MLA, R Roshan Baig's diatribe against Mr Siddaramaiah, however, didn't come up for discussion as the former has been issued a show-cause notice seeking his explanation within a week. Also, the leaders present seemed to believe that Mr Baig was already a lost cause going by the tone and tenor of his comments, and he could join the BJP soon, added sources.
