JOIN USAICC general secretary in-charge of Karnataka, Digvijay Singh, is scheduled to chair the State Congress coordination committee meeting on Tuesday amidst growing demand from a section of senior party legislators for ministerial berths.
The meeting is scheduled to be held at the KPCC main office on Queen’s Road. Many senior party legislators, including Eshwar Khandre and Veeranna Mattikatti, who are lobbying for ministerial berths, met Singh in Bangalore on Monday evening. KPCC president G Parameshwara has also been lobbying for the deputy chief minister post.
Parameshwara, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Home Minister K J George, Energy Minister D K Shivakumar and AICC secretaries in-charge of Karnataka A Chellakumar and Shantaram Naik are other members of the committee.
A group of senior legislators had recently petitioned to Siddaramaiah demanding that he revamp the council of ministers. They want him to drop the under-performing ministers and give an opportunity to senior legislators. But the chief minister was not in favour of the move.
He is, however, not against the ministry expansion. With the party winning two of the three Assembly constituencies in the by-elections, Siddaramaiah has a morale booster.
Besides, the committee is likely to discuss plans to strengthen the party in the coming days, besides taking stock of the performance of the government. The KPCC is learnt to have prepared a plan for organising the party in the next six months and it is likely to be discussed in the meeting, sources said.
Speaking to reporters soon after his arrival, Singh said the coordination committee will discuss everything related to strengthening the party. He, however, refused to reply to a question on the demand for revamping the ministry.
When asked if the party is open for creating a deputy chief minister post, he said it is left to the discretion of the chief minister.