Congress hoping on Siddaramaiah to end political crisis

With Jarkiholi brothers raising the rebellion banner, the Congress top brass is expecting former chief minister Siddaramaiah to settle the crises since all these leaders were his close confidants.

Since both Satish Jarkiholi and Ramesh Jarkiholi are close associates of Siddaramaiah, the party has again asked him to settle the issue at the earliest, said a senior leader here.

The party is expecting that Siddaramaiah, who will be returning to Bengaluru on Saturday after his foreign tour, will hold talks and put an end to the crises at the earliest, said the leader.

Prior to his departure to foreign tour, the party had asked the former chief minister to resolve the crises. Though he held meetings with the warring groups of Belagavi district, the issue continued. Since he is returning from tour, the party top brass has again asked him to speak to all the factions and resolve it, the leader said.

Though the party is keenly watching the developments, the leader said, the crises would not lead to collapsing of the JD(S)-Congress coalition government.

Though the crises has been boiling from last two weeks, the high command felt that this was nothing but an attempt of some disgruntled MLAs to armtwist the party to get plum portfolios in the event of Cabinet expansion.

With a few leaders in the state suspect the possibility of covert support of Siddaramaiah to Jarkiholi brothers, the party leader also said that the former chief minister has a greater responsibility to ensure stability of the government as he is the chairman of the co-ordination committee and the party’s floor leader in the Assembly.

Earlier, when Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy complained to Congress president Rahul Gandhi about the brewing dissident activities in Congress, Rahul is learnt to have instructed Siddaramaiah that neither himself or nor his followers should try to destabilise the government.