After 13 MLAs of the Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular) tendered their resignation to membership of the Legislative Assembly, former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said he has “no right hand or left hand” loyalists and that “all MLAs must be loyal to the Congress and not to the person.”
Mr. Siddaramaiah’s statement distancing himself from the ‘rebel’ MLAs came after Ahmed Patel, MP and a close aide of Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, reportedly asked the former Chief Minister the reasons behind senior MLAs and his loyalists resigning from the Assembly.
“What do you mean by loyalists?”, Mr. Siddaramaiah shot back at reporters and said: “All MLAs are with us. By inducing money and power, the BJP has hijacked the party MLAs.”
Meanwhile, following the demand by a few ‘rebel’ MLAs seeking change of guard in the government, senior Congress leaders on Sunday held several meetings to explore the possibility of seeking the Chief Minister’s post to the party.
Many loyalists of Mr. Siddaramaiah had expressed their willingness to withdraw resignation if the party got the Chief Minister’s post.
In the morning, K.C. Venugopal, AICC general secretary in charge of Karnataka, held talks with Mr. Siddaramaiah, veteran leader Mallikarjun Kharge, KPCC working president Eshwar Khandre, Ministers M.B. Patil and D.K. Shivakumar, and MP D.K. Suresh and explored various options to save the government. However, Mr. Kharge, who has been keeping a low profile after his defeat in the elections, opted out of the Chief Minister’s race.
