Dissidence in Karnataka JD (S), Kumaraswamy convenes meet of legislators

With the simmering discontentment among the ruling JD (S) legislators in Karnataka, threatening to snowball into an open revolt, Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy convened a meeting of JD (S) Legislature Party in Bangalore yesterday and made efforts to placate the disgruntled MLAs.

Apart from the dissatisfaction over their failure to secure ministerial berths during the last expansion of the coalition cabinet, the JD (S) MLAs have taken serious exception to the Chief Minister’s style of functioning and excessive interference in the administrative matters by his family members.

With even his stanch followers like Transport Minister N Cheluvaraya Swamy and Zameer Ahmed Khan joining the ranks of rebels in the party and taking its total strength to nearly 20 MLAs, Kumaraswamy invited all the party legislators to a meeting at his home office in Bangalore on Thursday to redress their grievances.

Though he denied any rebellion in the party and expressed confidence of ironing out the minor differences of opinion, the absence of a several party MLAs including his close confidantes Santosh Lad and Zameer Ahmed Khan from the meeting gave room for intense speculation.

A few disgruntled legislators like former Minister Amaregowda Bayyapur attended the meeting, but openly aired their grievances before reporters waiting outside the venue. Amaregowda Bayyapur told television channels that he and several legislators were not satisfied with the developmental activities in their respective constituencies.

Figuring prominently in the list of rebel JD (S) MLAs are former Minister Alangur Srinivas and Mahima Patel, both of whom were ditched during the last Cabinet expansion. Former Ministers B Satyanarayana, Merajuddin Patel and Muniyappa Mudappa have also been identified with the rebels.

With the rebels angling for a change of leadership after waiting in vain for ministerial berths, the political circles were agog with speculation over the likely dropping of four existing Ministers to accommodate the disgruntled legislators. But, Kumaraswamy ruled the possibility of dropping anybody from the Ministry for the time being.

Significantly, the dissidence in the JD (S) has reached a flashpoint at a time when suspended BJP legislator Janardhan Reddy threatened to make public within one week the evidence on the mining scandal and the reported acceptance of a bribe worth Rs 1.5 billion by the Chief Minister.

Reddy held a secret parley with a select group of BJP legislators including party’s state unit general secretary Aravind Limbavalli in Bellary on Wednesday. Though he refused to divulge what transpired during the meeting, Reddy said he would make public the evidence in his possession during a press conference to be convened either in Bangalore or Bellary.

“I would prefer to go public with the evidence in Bellary as I feel more safe in Bellary than in Bangalore. I am not sure whether I will be provided with adequate security in Bangalore”, he told reporters.