Cong to deal with Reddys only if they quit BJP

Sources told Deccan Herald that a request from the rebel saffron camp for audience with All Indian Congress Working Committee president Sonia Gandhi, as also with general secretaries Rahul Gandhi and Ahmed Patel, was rejected by the party.

The Congress’s view was that the Reddys should be entertained only in the eventuality of their snapping ties with the BJP and “parading their support” independently.
Sources said the Congress had deputed Roshan Baig, a lower-rung Congress leader from the State, to deal with the Reddy brothers.
External affairs minister and former Karnataka chief minister S M Krishna has been also consulted “and is in the loop,” they said.

In the eventuality of the BJP crisis prolonging, the Congress may actively mull over “political options” offered by the anti-Yeddyurappa campaign unleashed by the BJP faction.

The top Bharatiya Janata Party leadership is not hopeful of an early end to the crisis in the party in view of “the complex bargaining.”

Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday met about 40 leaders, including MLAs from Karnataka, apparently to discuss relief for drought-hit areas in the State.
“Leaders from the State have suggested that the party should not take a detached view of the developments in the in Karnataka,” sources said.