K'taka job quota Bill put on hold after Mallikarjun Kharge's intervention

According to sources in the Congress, Siddaramaiah announced the withdrawal of the bill on Wednesday evening after the Congress's central leadership, including Kharge intervened

Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah on Thursday said his government has put on hold the Bill mandating job reservation for Kannadigas in the private sector due to “some confusion”.

It will be taken up for discussion during the next Cabinet meeting, he asserted.

The party’s central leadership has, however, conveyed its displeasure to the Karnataka CM for trying to push the Bill without consulting his senior colleagues.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, who hails from Karnataka, was also not kept in the loop on this issue, Congress sources in the national capital said.

According to sources, Siddaramaiah announced the withdrawal of the Bill on Wednesday evening after the central leadership of the Congress, including Kharge, who was in Bengaluru, had intervened.

A Congress source termed the process of drafting and presenting of the Bill before the state cabinet on Monday as a “unilateral” effort by the Chief Minister’s Office and ministers that are close to him. 

Congress sources claimed that most of the ministers in the Karnataka cabinet, including the deputy chief minister D K Shivakumar and commerce and industries minister M B Patil, conveyed to the central leadership that they came to know about the Bill only when it was presented at the meeting of the state’s cabinet.

The episode highlighted the factionalism prevalent within the Congress in Karnataka, which the central leadership blamed for the party’s subpar performance in the state in the Lok Sabha polls.

Sources claimed the central leadership suspects the Bill was pushed through as a means to distract from issues such as the alleged ‘Valmiki scam’ that the Siddaramaiah government faces.

The Congress leadership believes the CM and his loyalists crossed a “Lakshman Rekha”. 

The controversy over the Bill handed the BJP an opportunity to take potshots at the Karnataka government, the Left Democratic Front government of Kerala, and the Telugu Desam Party-run government in Andhra Pradesh to embarrass the Congress, sources said.

There were also apprehensions in the party that the state government's move could hurt the party’s electoral prospects elsewhere in the country, especially in northern India.   

Replying to the Leader of the Opposition, R Ashoka's demand to clarify the state government's stand on the Bill, Siddaramaiah said in the Karnataka Assembly that a discussion on the Bill could not take place during Monday’s Cabinet meeting.

He said that by then, reports appeared in the media, and there was confusion on the issue, he said.

 The state cabinet had on Monday cleared the Karnataka State Employment of Local Candidates in the Industries, Factories and Other Establishments Bill, 2024, which makes it compulsory for private firms to reserve jobs for Kannadigas.

Ashoka pointed out that the CM changed his message on ‘X' thrice, from first announcing that the cabinet has decided a 100 per cent reservation for Kannadigas in the private sector and then deleted it.

The CM later posted another message saying that there would be a 50 per cent reservation in the management category and 70 per cent in the non-management category for Kannadigas.  

“Finally, you announced putting the bill on hold. There appears to be a Tughlaq government in Karnataka,” Ashoka said.

In his reply, the CM said: “There is no Tughlaq government, but Siddramaiah government. We will take up the bill in the next cabinet meeting.”

In the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, the Congress won nine of Karnataka's 28 seats, an underwhelming performance that the central leadership attributed to the factionalism in the party.