Bengaluru: The strained relations between the ruling coalition partners hit a new low on Monday with Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy (HDK) offering to resign.
Upset over Congress MLAs going public with their complaints against his Government, Kumaraswamy warned the Congress against ‘Crossing the line.’
“If my style of functioning is not acceptable to anybody, I am ready to quit. I do not want to continue and stick on to the chair,” he said while putting the onus on the Congress leadership to resolve issues.
Cautioning the Congress, Kumaraswamy asked the party leaders to control their MLAs.
Reacting to the allegations of Yeshwanthpur Congress MLA, S.T. Somashekar, who recently took charge as BDA Chairman, that infrastructure development works in Bengaluru has slowed down under the Coalition Government, Kumaraswamy claimed that his Government had allotted Rs.1 lakh crore to various projects in Bengaluru like the peripheral Ring Road, Suburban Rail and elevated corridor. Following Kumaraswamy’s ‘threat’, embarrassed Congress leaders went into damage control and decided to issue notice to Somashekar seeking his explanation.
Kumaraswamy was also said to be agitated over a Cabinet Minister publicly declaring on Sunday that for him and Congress MLAs, Siddaramaiah was still the Chief Minister.
KPCC President Dinesh Gundu Rao said that MLA Somashekar’s statement is objectionable and unacceptable.
Observing that the MLA’s remarks amounted to indiscipline, the KPCC Chief said that Somashekar, who is also the BDA Chairman, should not have given such a statement from a public platform.
Later in the day on Monday, Somashekar met Dinesh Gundu Rao and apologised for his remarks.
AICC General Secretary in charge of Karnataka K.C. Venugopal said that the party will not tolerate any indiscipline and the KPCC has been instructed to issue a show cause notice to Somashekar seeking a clarification on his controversial remarks.
However, by evening, the CM softened his stand and claimed there was no differences between the coalition partners.
This post was published on January 29, 2019 6:43 pm