Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, May 20: All India Congress Committee president, Rahul Gandhi, has been trying to save the coalition government in Karnataka at any cost, and has expressed his displeasure at the dissenting notes emanating from various quarters about the inability of the two partners to gel with each other. Still, reports say that former chief minister and chairman of the coalition government's coordination committee, Siddaramaiah, has placed his assessment before the party high command in which he has expressed the view that ending the alliance with the JD(S) would be in the best interests of the party.

Siddaramaiah strongly feels that if the current truck with the JD(S) is allowed to continue in the state, Congress party will suffer a setback. "It would be in the interests of the party not to allow this coalition government to survive further. If it has to continue, a Congress leader can be made the chief minister," he has advocated. It is also said that he has told the party's national leadership in no uncertain words that the party cannot expect to make any gain in Lok Sabha election because of the electoral alliance with the JD(S).

Still, Rahul Gandhi has stuck to his view that the coalition government should continue. On Sunday, he held prolonged discussions with the state leaders who were summoned to New Delhi. After taking stock of the current political scenario in Karnataka, Rahul in no uncertain terms, informed the leaders that he wants them to work for the continuance of the alliance as well as the coalition government.

Leader of the Congress parliamentary party in the Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge, Siddaramaiah, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president, Dinesh Gundu Rao, deputy chief minister, Dr G Parameshwara, and water resources minister, D K Shivakumar, had taken part in the deliberations. Rahul Gandhi reportedly expressed his displeasure at the verbal barbs directed by leaders of both the parties at each other during the elections.

He is said to have told the state party leaders that the alliance needs to be nurtured even after the Lok Sabha election result is announced. He promised to take up problems if any his party leaders are facing, with Kumaraswamy and Deve Gowda personally. This assurance came in the backdrop of Deve Gowda's complaint to Rahul that dissident Congress leaders might topple the government after the results are announced.

Rahul Gandhi also is said to have expressed his strong reservation on the tweet made by Siddaramaiah about replacement of the chief minister. But Siddaramaiah stood his ground and justified the stand taken by him, it is said.

Siddaramaiah brought to the notice of Rahul Gandhi the fact that JD(S) leaders have not been giving importance or due weightage to Congress legislators since the coalition government came into being, which has angered Congress MLAs. He said that the alliance has hit the Congress most in Old Mysore region of the state, and expressed the apprehension about the organizational network of the party suffering badly in the coming days because of the alliance. Dinesh Gundu Rao is also said to have come in support of what Siddaramaiah said at the meeting.