Gowda miffed by Cong’s failure to rein in Siddaramaiah

The rift between JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda and coordination committee chairman Siddaramaiah over the recent Cabinet expansion, is said to be the reason for the regional party leader’s outburst against the Congress and predicting the end of the coalition government.

Gowda, who vented out his anger at the coalition partners, was said to be furious with Siddaramaiah for demanding that the JD(S) should give away the third Cabinet berth to the Congress. The JD(S) leader, who had reluctantly accommodated Independent MLA H Nagesh into the Cabinet under his party’s quota, had refused to yield ground.

Of the three Cabinet vacancies, two belonged to the JD(S) and one to the Congress. Initially, Gowda’s plan was to accommodate two of the party leaders, including one belonging to the minority community, into the Cabinet. But Siddaramaiah insisted that the JD(S) should not only accommodate one of the two Independent MLAs under its quota but also give away the third berth to the Congress.

In fact, the issue had created differences between the father-son duo of Gowda and Kumaraswamy, who was forced to leave the third Cabinet berth vacant at the time of expansion recently. This stalemate is also said to be the reason for not allocating portfolios to the two newly inducted ministers – Nagesh and R Shankar – so far.

Miffed with Siddaramaiah’s demand, sources in the JD(S) said, Gowda complained against him to Congress president Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi. The JD(S) leader asked Rahul to rein in Siddaramaiah. “But Rahul told Gowda that he was not in a position to control the former chief minister and that the JD(S) should make some adjustments. This has really hurt the former Prime Minister,” the JD(S) insiders said.

Subsequently, Siddaramaiah met Rahul and suggested him to pull back the support to the JD(S)-led coalition government, citing damage the Congress had been suffering due to the alliance. Gowda, therefore, hit back by openly stating that the coalition government was formed because of Congress’ pressure and that he was personally not in favour of it.

Arm-twisting tactics

Sources in the Congress, however, saw Gowda’s outburst as his tactics to arm-twist the Congress into controlling Siddaramaiah.

“Gowda knows full well that the Congress was not in a position to face mid-term polls after its debacle in the LS polls. Majority of the Congress MLAs, too, are against it. So the JD(S) leader is threatening the Congress by talking about mid-term polls,” the sources pointed out.