Karnataka: CM Siddaramaiah to meet with groups of Congress MLAs on Monday, the first after last month’s letter war

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

DK Shivakumar will hold their first meeting with a group of Congress MLAs in Bengaluru on Monday to hear out their grievances in a bid to stem any displeasure among the party’s lawmakers about the 10-week old government. The meeting comes in response to a promise the CM held to his party MLAs, last month, after about a dozen MLAs wrote to him demanding a Congress legislature party (CLP) meeting. He offered to meet MLAs district-wise every month.

The CM is slated to meet the Congress MLAs from Yadagir, Ballary, Chitradurga, Bagalkot, and Tumakuru on Monday in the presence of their district in-charge ministers. The meeting also comes in the backdrop of Rahul Gandhi setting a target of 20 seats from Karnataka in the upcoming Lok Sabha polls. In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP won 25 out of 28 seats, leaving just one for the Congress.The Delhi leadership does not want the simmering discontent among sections of MLAs not erupt into a wave of dissidence.

At the recent CLP meeting, many MLAs are learnt to have complained to the CM about lack of funds for development in their constituencies, and how some ministers were treating them with indifference and not taking them into confidence before making official postings in their taluks. The Congress regime has been trying its best to create a positive mood among voters by aggressively talking about the economic transformation it is ushering in by implementing the party’s guarantee schemes. The government has already rolled out the programmes of free bus rides for women and free electricity supply to households, and is preparing to implement the rest.