Bengaluru: Following the aftermath of the state cabinet expansion by the coalition government wherein coalition leaders Ramesh Jarakiholi, B C Patel, R Shankar and few others were dropped, the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) President Dinesh Gundu Rao called for a press meet here in the party office on Saturday, December 22.
Addressing the media he said, “We understand that the leaders are upset with the decisions in the cabinet expansion meet but nothing was done on personal grounds.”
Answering the questions on Ramesh Jarikiholi’s exclusion from the ministry, Dinesh Gundu Rao said, “Ramesh had told the Congress leaders that he was not able to handle the pressure as he himself was involved in district-level meetings and development projects and therefore, he could not make it to any of the meetings as well as the winter session in Suvarna Soudha, Belagavi.”
Referring to dropping of R Shankar’s name from the list of cabinet ranking, he said, “R Shankar is from Karnataka Janata Paksha (KJP) and after his victory, we had requested him to join the coalition. Though he had refused initially, when we assured of a ministry in the coalition government, he accepted the invitation, after several meetings.”
“Currently due to the pressure from other leaders from both the Congress and the Janata Dal (S), we had to give a chance to the ones who did not get an opportunity earlier”, he added.
On the questions that whether this decision would have a strong impact on the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, Dinesh Gundu Rao said, “There is no question of adverse effect, instead, we have gained more strength as we have an increased number in the parliamentary board, state-level advisory board and many other divisions. The intention of the coalition in the state was to face the Bharatiya Janata Party in the Lok Sabha elections and to unroot it from the Centre.”
Meanwhile, he said that stringent actions would be taken if anybody (irrespective of senior and junior) in the party spoke against the policies and code of conduct of the party as the high command and the Congress committee had reached the saturation point of tolerance.
