Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (RJP)

Bengaluru, Feb 28: Although chief minister Siddaramaiah happily came back from New Delhi after giving explanation about his expensive watch to the Congress high command, sources say that the high command is not very pleased with the developments.

The high command feels that the state government has failed to control the damage inflicted by the wrist watch, sources say.

With new angles being added to the row by the opposition leaders, the top brass in New Delhi is of the opinion that the remaining two years of Congress rule in the state won't be easy.

Some party sources said that when Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi had himself led a strong campaign against Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his suit worth Rs 10 lac, it has become very difficult for him to talk about the Rs 70-lac watch issue. The high command also feels that, no matter how the party in state analyses the recent ZP and TP election results, the watch issue has affected the party's performance.

State Congress chief Dr G Parameshwara, who had met Rahul Gandhi a couple of days before Siddaramaiah's visit to New Delhi, is learnt to have told him the watch issue was one of the main reason's for the party's poor performance in the recent ZP and TP polls.

In fact, sources say that several state leaders have secretly expressed to the high command their unhappiness over the latest controversy which they felt has damaged the government's image.

Some senior leaders from Congress feel that more and appropriate corrective steps need to be taken to repair the damage done. But nobody knows what these steps are.

Senior party leader B K Hari Prasad has criticised the chief minister over the watch row and said "Wearing luxury watches is not Congress culture. The chief minister has not adapted to Congress culture. He should not ignore old Congress leaders.”

In the meanwhile, the chief minister on Saturday said that H D Kumaraswamy was 'jealous' of him becoming the chief minister of Karnataka as he belonged to the backward class. "It happened with Bangarappa and Veerappa Moily also who belong to backward classes," he added.

Replying to this later, H D Kumaraswamy said, "As Siddaramaiah is disturbed by the watch issue, he talks like that. But I am not jealous of anybody. I was not there in politics during Moily regime. When Bangarappa was ousted, the Congress leaders played their roles in that. Though Siddaramaiah was in JD (S), he also was part of that. Why to blame me now?”