Cong Gen Secy Venugopal meets CM Kumaraswamy, party leaders

Team Udayavani, May 22, 2019, 12:00 PM IST

Bengaluru: Amid simmering discontent in the ruling coalition’s alliance partner Congress, party General Secretary K C Venugopal Tuesday held discussions with top Congress leaders in Karnataka and Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy on recent political developments and the Lok Sabha exit poll results.

During the meeting with the Chief Minister, Venugopal is said to have assured there would be no threat to the coalition government, amid speculations about its survival after the Lok Sabha poll results, Congress sources said.

JD(S) patriarch H D Deve Gowda and Kumaraswamy not attending the meeting of opposition leaders on the EVM issue is said to have triggered the AICC General Secretary’s meeting with theChief Minister and assurance about government’s continuity.

Kumaraswamy, who was scheduled to travel to Delhi Tuesday morning, cancelled it at the last moment.

Ahead of the meeting with the Chief Minister, Venugopal,along with KPCC President Dinesh Gundu Rao, Deputy ChiefMinister G Parameshwara, met Siddaramaiah at his residence here and held discussions.

The leaders mainly discussed senior party MLA Roshan Baig’s outburst against the party leadership, disgruntlement amongCongress leaders like Ramesh Jarkiholi and exit poll results, among other things, party sources said.

Venugopal expressed anguish at Baig’s comments,they said.

The AICC General Secretary, along with Congress leaders, then drove down to a hotel here to meet the Chief Minister and discussed with him the recent political developments, exit poll results, possible attempts by BJP to poach MLAs through ‘Operation Lotus’ and destabilise the government, as also on disgruntled legislators like Jarkiholi.

Hitting out at Congress leaders for the party’s performance in the Lok Sabha polls as projected in the exit polls, Baig Tuesday held Siddaramaiah’s “arrogance” and Rao’s “immaturity” responsible for the “flop show”.

He had also called Venugopal, who is in-charge of Karnataka a “buffoon.”

As the exit polls gave a clear cut edge to the NDA in the just concluded Lok Sabha polls, Baig on Monday had also dropped hints of quitting the party and appealed to Muslims to “compromise” with the situation, if NDA returns to power.

Most exit polls on Sunday had forecast another term for Modi, with some projecting that the BJP-led NDA would get more than 300 seats to comfortably cross the majority markof 272 in the Lok Sabha.

The BJP will win big in Karnataka, the pollsters have predicted, with the saffron party increasing its tally compared to last time.

A majority of the exit polls have predicted BJP winning over 21 out of the total 28 seats, compared to 17 last time.

Venugopal and Karnataka Congress leaders during their meeting are also said to have discussed the threat by Ramesh Jarkiholi, who has been hobnobbing with the BJP for some time now that he, along with other MLAs, would resign from the Congresssoon en masse.

Though there were reports about Ramesh being deserted in his attempt to mobilise Congress MLAs to resign, several legislators considered close to him like ShrimantPatil of Kagawad, Mahesh Kumathalli and B Nagendra of Bellary have pledged their loyalty to the party.

But a recent meeting between Jarkiholi and his close confidant Kumathalli had rekindled speculation that the MLAs were still together and working out a strategy post Lok Sabha election results on May 23.

Congress too is still not clear how many MLAs are in touch with Jarkiholi and there are fears about BJP indulging in “OperationLotus” once again to destabilise the government.

BJP has predicted that the ruling coalition would collapse after the Lok Sabha poll results, claiming that 20 odd Congress MLAs are unhappy with the government and may take any decision after May 23.

Congress leaders at their meeting ahead of talks with the CM, also reportedly discussed about some within the party wanting to end the alliance, holding the partnership with JD(S) as the reason for the party’s possible poor performance in the Lok Sabha polls.

Also a scheduled meeting of “like minded” Congress MLAs to discuss the political situation in Karnataka and the growing clamour for Siddaramaiah to be Chief Minister again that resulted in public spats between coalition leaders were said to have been discussed.