Siddaramaiah gets Delhi summons over complaints to Digvijay

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has been summoned to Delhi by the central leadership of the Congress.

The chief minister will attend a meeting with the leaders on July 2, where the debacle in the Lok Sabha elections in the State is likely to be assessed. Siddaramaiah is expected to have a tough time at the meeting.

The development comes in the wake of several legislators and leaders blaming him for the party’s poor show at the hustings.

Digvijay Singh, the Karnataka in-charge of the party’s affairs, had a two-day brainstorming meeting with legislators and other leaders in Bangalore recently.


He is understood to have conveyed his opinion on the complaints against the chief minister.

Singh will also place his report before former Union Minister A K Antony, who has been asked by the party high command to prepare an analysis on the poor performance of the party at the national level in the Lok Sabha polls.

Antony, who is scheduled to hold a meeting with Karnataka leaders on July 2 to discuss the poll outcome, is likely to hold a separate meeting with Siddaramaiah and confront him with complaints against him, sources told Deccan Herald.

The former defence minister is also expected to seek the opinion of KPCC chief Parameshwara, who has also been asked to come to Delhi, about the complaints from legislators.

Antony will finally submit his report to party president Sonia Gandhi.

Though Singh held an open discussion with leaders in Bangalore, it is learnt that a large number of leaders, including MLAs and some MPs, met him separately and blamed Siddaramaiah and his team for the poor performance in the polls.

The party was hoping to win 18 to 20  seats, based on the performance in the Assembly elections, but it managed to win only nine.

The State leaders are of the view that the chief minister should be held responsible for the poor show and wanted Siddaramaiah’s style of functioning to change.

Siddaramaiah should take party leaders into confidence. Despite the Congress being in power, the party finished behind the BJP in 136 Assembly segments, they reportedly said.

The leaders are believed to have told Singh that major communities like Lingayats and Vokkaligas are very unhappy with the functioning of the government.

The two communities are feeling that the Congress-led government has completely ignored them.

The chief minister and a few of his associates in the government have nominated their own people to the Council, the leaders are said to have complained to Singh.

A coterie surrounding the chief ministers, mainly leaders who had quit the JD(S) to join the Congress, were having an upper hand in decision making, while original Congressmen were completely ignored, the leaders are learnt to have complained.