Siddaramaiah Meets HDK, Dinesh Gundu Rao Amid Rising Dissent; Rubbishes BJP Threat to Coalition

New Delhi: Amid growing dissent from the members of the Congress-JDS coalition in Karnataka, senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah met chief minister HD Kumaraswamy and Karnataka Congress chief Dinesh Gundu Rao on Tuesday.

Siddaramiah asserted that no threat from the BJP would affect the government and said that the coalition government was committed to provide ‘good governance and able administration’.

The development comes a day ahead of the Congress meeting, which is scheduled to be held in Bengaluru with MLAs. The leaders will discuss party's performance in the just-concluded Lok Sabha polls. While Siddaramaiah will chair it, AICC general secretary and Karnataka in-charge KC Venugopal is expected to attend the meet.

The meeting takes places at a time when leaders of the Congress and the JDS are using the rout in the Lok Sabha polls to raise the differences. The two sides continue to sulk over the pre-poll alliance. However, the senior leadership seems to be in a damage-control mode.

The BJP has been pointing at the fissures in the coalition and has been saying that the alliance would fall apart soon.

On Monday, the former chief minister ruled out state BJP chief BS Yedyurappa’s claims that the coalition would collapse. He said the alliance was strong. He added that the people’s mandate was for the central government and not for 'toppling' the state government. "Yeddyurappa has been saying for the past one year the government will fall. He will continue to say the same for the next four years. I am confident the government is strong," Siddaramaiah said.

He asserted that all Congress MLAs, including dissident leader Ramesh Jarkiholi, were with the party and nobody was leaving. Dismissing Yeddyurappa's claim that the state government would collapse on June 1, Siddaramaiah dared him to resign from his post if his prediction did not come true.