Bengaluru: The internal bickering between partners over contentious appointments to Boards and Corporations as well as Chief Minister's Political Adviser post by Congress party has been temporarily patched up.
AICC General Secretary Mr K C Venugopal has agreed to give up the party's claim to the KPSC appointment to JD(S), and backed down from two other contentious appointments, which the JD(S) believes is part of its share as per coalition agreement.
The Congress had announced that Shidlaghatta MLA Mr V Muniyappa would be Chief Minister's Political Secretary, while Chickaballapur MLA Dr Sudhakar and Doddaballapur MLA Mr Venkataramanappa would be appointed as Chairmen of Karnataka State Pollution Control Board and Karnataka Road Development Corporation Limited respectively.
While CM H D Kumaraswamy was miffed with the appointment of a Congressman as his political adviser, PWD Minister Mr Revanna saw red over the arbitrary appointment to KRDCL.
The KSPCB appointment also turned out to be controversial, as the Congress appointee would be in violation of guidelines set by the Supreme Court. The court had noted that the Chairperson appointed should be a graduate in Environmental Science or any discipline of Engineering.
On Wednesday, Mr Venugopal had a tough time, convincing Congress leaders like Dy CM G Parameshwar, Mr D K Shivakumar and others, who were up against Mr Siddaramaiah's choice of ministerial candidates and his portfolio allocation. Their contention was that the demands by Mr Siddaramaiah, and his supporters was unreasonable and was aimed at weakening their positions in the party. Though Mr Venugopal had come to sort out the issues pertaining portfolios, he could not complete the meeting.
Meanwhile, Mr Venugopal also realised that the neither of the coalition partners were happy with the Congress move and Mr Deve Gowda and Mr Kumaraswamy wanted to rake up the issue with AICC President Mr Rahul Gandhi. Hurriedly ending the party meeting, Mr Venugopal joined JD(S) leaders en-route to New Delhi on their charter flight.
Mr Kumaraswamy had clearly refused to sign the file with the list of nominations to Boards, Corporations and other political appointments. He wanted to know how he could have a political adviser of Congress choice, while his own party people were relegated to the sidelines. Mr Deve Gowda wanted to know if the Congress was taking JD(S) for granted and whether Congress was serious in continuing with the coalition government.
Mr Venugopal convinced them saying that these were very small issues, which need not go before Mr Rahul Gandhi. The political adviser could be an ornamental post and if the file was not signed, it would send the wrong signal, he told the father-son duo, adding that with Karnataka Public Service Commission (KPSC) Chairman retiring by month end, JD(S) would in reality, have complete control over KPSC.
