Dissenting Congress minister meets Siddaramaiah

Karnataka minister Ramesh Jarkiholi who along with his brother has raised a voice of dissent in the Congress Monday met former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, assigned the task of pacifying the siblings to prevent any threat to the coalition government.

Siddaramaiah, who is the chairman of the coordination committee of the Congress-JDS coalition, had a one-on-one meeting with Ramesh Jarkiholi, but both remained tight lipped about its outcome.

"It was a one-on-one meeting between Siddaramaiah and Ramesh Jarkiholi. We don't know what conversation took place between the two," said a close aide of Siddaramaiah.

Sources in the Congress said Siddaramaiah was waiting to meet Jarkiholi since about 10.30 AM in the morning but the meeting could take place only at 7 PM.

The sources said the party high command had assigned Siddaramaiah the task of resolving whatever grouse the Jarkiholi brothers have in the interest of the stability of the nearly four-month old coalition government.

Ramesh Jarkiholi and his brother Satish have been leading a faction of MLAs and have openly declared that they do have their camp, comprisingat least eight lawmakers and many more were in touch with them.

"We do have our own faction of like-minded people. Factionalism existed before and will continue to remain in future too. We were always with the party and are not dissidents.

However, our group has seven-eight MLAs and we will remain together," Satish Jarkiholi had told a channel on September 12.

Congress has been hit by internal dissent, triggered by a faction of MLAs led by Ramesh Jarkiholi, who is locked in a turf war with another minister D K Shivakumar.

The Jarkiholi brothers' activities have led to speculations that BJP was fishing in troubled waters and was in touch with them to dislodge the government.

The siblings are upset over Shivakumar allegedly trying to challenge their supremacy in Belagavi district through MLA Laxmi Hebbalkar.

On Friday, Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy had accused the BJP of trying to topple his government by using "kingpins" who he alleged were offering bribe to JDS and Congress MLAs, a charge which was dismissed by the BJP.