H D Kumaraswamy accepts Cong choice, Muniyappa is his political secretary

Bengaluru: Even as a fresh political war erupted in the state with the ruling Congress-JD(S) coalition and BJP accusing each other of making a renewed bid to poach MLAs, Chief Minister H. D. Kumaraswamy on Monday appointed senior Congress leader, V. Muniyappa as his political secretary.

Mr Kumaraswamy who had resisted the Congress party's effort all along to make this appointment, finally appears to have succumbed to pressure.

Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, a senior Congress leader said, "This ought to have happened on the same day. But it was Mr Kumaraswamy who kept on deferring it. Now he has realised that the appointments of Congress party's share of nominees cannot be withheld or kept in abeyance for his convenience."

It is strongly speculated that the ongoing political crisis has forced Mr Kumaraswamy to cede ground in favour of the Congress party, which has 80 seats in the Assembly and yet gave up its claim to the Chief Minister's post as well as the crucial Finance portfolio handing them over to Mr Kumaraswamy when the two parties formed the coalition government in May last year.