After pouring his heart out to Congress president Sonia Gandhi during an extended meeting in New Delhi on Tuesday, Leader of Opposition in the Legislative Assembly, Siddaramaiah, is set to continue in his post, ending five days of uncertainty.
At the meeting, which lasted about 50 minutes, the Kuruba strongman reportedly brought up all the factors, including the sidelining of his supporters and himself, which forced him to announce his resignation on June 1. “I am satisfied with the meeting. The Congress president assured me that she will take a decision (on all the issues raised by him) after consulting all the leaders,” he told Deccan Chronicle.
His supporters said the leader was advised not to precipitate matters and to continue in the post. Mrs Gandhi's political secretary, Ahmed Patel, party general secretary in-charge of Karnataka, Madhusudhan Mistry and Mr Siddaramaiah’s confidantes, Dr H.C. Mahadevappa and C.M. Ibrahim, also attended the meeting where issues like groupism and lack of unity in the state-unit were discussed at length.
Sources in the party said general secretary Rahul Gandhi kept his word and spent about 45 minutes on issues plaguing the state unit with Mr Siddaramaiah. These two meetings were interspersed with ones with Mr Patel, Oscar Fernandes and B.K. Hariprasad, with the latter explaining the reasons for picking former member of Parliament Iqbal Ahmed Saradgi instead of Mr Ibrahim for the June 11 polls to the Legislative Council. Mr Saradgi was reportedly chosen as he was a senior member of the party and represented minorities of north Karnataka, as compared to Mr Ibrahim who returned to the party after a stint in Janata Dal.