In fresh trouble for the Congress, which is still reeling under its defeat in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections, senior party leader Ramalinga Reddy has hit out at the top brass, blaming lack of coordination between seniors and the leadership for the humiliating loss in the state.
In an open letter to his party on Twitter, Reddy also spoke out against the likely induction of independent legislators in the cabinet. Reports said the Congress and JD(S) have been mulling over a cabinet expansion in order to induct R Shankar and H Nagesh among others to halt the BJP from increasing its strength in the Assembly.
Reddy, however, expressed his disdain at not being among the preferred candidates for a ministerial berth. “I’m a seven-time MLA but they are neglecting me. This is also the case for senior leaders like HK Patil, Roshan Baig and others,” he said, adding he was not against the induction of new members but neglecting seniors while promoting newcomers was unfair.
Urging the leadership to “set things right”, Reddy said the party must address the fact that seniors have been ignored. He also suggested that ministers who failed to deliver in the Lok Sabha polls should be relegated to organisational positions in the party.
The coalition government is said to be in deep water ever since the Lok Sabha polls saw the BJP make a clean sweep in the state. The saffron party had also won one of the two assembly seats for which bypolls were held simultaneously. With that win, the party has 105 MLAs in the 224-member Karnataka Assembly, eight short of a simple majority.
Earlier, the Tumkur Congress blamed its own party workers for the defeat of the coalition candidate in the constituency. The report, written by Tumkur district Congress president R Ramakrishna and addressed to AICC general secretary and Karnataka in-charge, KC Venugopal, says former MP SP Muddahanumegowda and former MLA, KN Rajanna, were working against the party which led to the defeat of the coalition candidate HD Deve Gowda.
Meanwhile, JD(S) state president H Vishwanath has resigned from his post, accepting moral responsibility for the defeat. In a letter to Deve Gowda, he said: "It is my moral responsibility... I have raised issues about the coordination committee. The people of Karnataka are enjoying the alliance government. The coordination committee is headed by Siddaramaiah but both partners should be a part of it. Even the common minimum programme has not been implemented."
Comments
0 comment