Karnataka: Breakfast meeting called by Dy CM with cabinet ministers, Cong' leaders

Amidst brewing discontent among the legislators of the coalition parties, Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara on Thursday called a breakfast meeting with the Cabinet Ministers and Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) leaders.

Congress general secretary and Karnataka in-charge K C Venugopal, Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Siddaramaiah, KPCC president Dinesh Gundu Rao, Home minister MB Patil, Water Resources Minister D K Shivakumar, and cabinet ministers were also present in the meeting at Parameshwara's residence.

On Wednesday, a CLP meeting was concluded.

Rao had said the CLP meeting focused on the progress of the state and added that the allocation of portfolios will not be the primary concern.

The JDS-Congress coalition, which is in power in the state, went through a rough patch during the campaigning of the recently held elections with leaders of both the parties accusing each other. Congress has 79 MLAs while Janata Dal-Secular (JDS) has 37 MLAs in the coalition government holding power in the state.

The tensions between the two parties benefitted the BJP which won 25 of the 28 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka while both JDS and Congress had to content itself with just one seat each.

However, the Karnataka Congress unit had said that there was no threat to the coalition in the state.