Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Dec 16: A number of Congress leaders have come together to demand for the ouster of Siddaramaiah from the post of the Congress legislature party leader. But the reports filed by the eight observers deputed by the national leadership of the party to assess the election scenario during the bypoll have proved to be stumbling blocks for their aspirations to seize initiative from Siddaramaiah.

The reports have exposed the fact that other than Siddaramaiah, the other Congress leaders had not contributed significantly for the party's campaigning. The reports, it is said, have mentioned that influential leaders, by remaining neutral during the campaigning, failed to ensure that caste-based votes which they could have earned for the party, are properly routed towards the Congress. The reports were received after Siddaramaiah and Dinesh Gundu Rao sent in their resignations to the posts of the leader of the opposition in the assembly and president of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee respectively. Now the national leadership is also said to be facing a confusing situation.

Because of this report, it is said, the high command, which was moving ahead in the matter of finding suitable alternative leaders, have stepped back. On Saturday night, Rahul Gandhi called Siddaramaiah over phone. As Siddaramaiah told him that the doctors have advised him complete rest for 15 days and that he can undertake Delhi trip only after that period, the national leadership is likely to defer a decision on finding replacement till then.

It is said that when his close friends visited him at the hospital, Siddaramaiah confided to them that he had actually planned to tender resignation to the membership of the assembly too in addition to the post of the leader of the Congress legislature party. When his well-wishers pressurized him to withdraw his resignation to the post of the leader of the opposition, he outright refused this suggestion and asserted that he had planned to resign as legislator, but had changed his mind at the advice of some friends.

Reportedly, Siddaramaiah is frustrated by the fact that some people perceived close to him undertook some behind-the-scene activities that were against his interests. That is the reason why he planned to resign as legislator, reports said.