Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)
Bengaluru, Dec 11: The thorough drubbing the Congress has faced in the by election has given rise to a sense of despair among the senior party leaders. At the same time, resignations tendered by the Congress leaders have given food for party level discussions about the possible changes in the state leadership of the party. They have also kindled an interest among some who are eager to take on the mantle from Siddaramaiah and Dinesh Gundu Rao.
After the results were announced on Monday, Siddaramaiah, who is the leader of the Congress legislature party, and Dinesh Gundu Rao, president of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee, had owned responsibility for the defeat and resigned to their posts. It is learnt that in-charge of state Congress affairs K C Venugopal, too has expressed his inclination to resign. The interest shown by these leaders to get divested of their respective responsibilities has given rise to factional politics in the state Congress.
Siddaramaiah
It is said that the resignations have gone to strengthen the allegations being made by senior Congress leaders that both Dinesh Gundu Rao and K C Venugopal were following the diktat of Siddaramaiah. Congress working president Ishwar Khandre, reportedly was not aware that Siddaramaiah and Dinesh had discussed the party's poor performance in the bypoll and decided to resign. Khandre therefore reportedly is unhappy at Dinesh Gundu Rao for not taking him into confidence. Still, he had expressed inclination to resign and announce the same in a press conference but he backtracked at the last minute as he felt that if everyone resigns, there will not be anyone to manage the state Congress affairs.
Some MLAs regarded as close to Siddaramaiah tried hard to convince Siddaramaiah to withdraw his resignation. Leader of the opposition in the legislative council S R Patil, MLCs Jayamala and Ivan D'Souza, legislators, Magadi Balakrishna, K N Rajanna, Cheluvarayaswamy, Narendra Swamy etc pleaded with Siddaramaiah not to resign but reportedly Siddaramaiah stood firm on his decision to resign.