BENGALURU: In a bid to placate disgruntled legislators and address their grievances, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has begun holding one-on-one meetings with Congress MLAs.
The exercise, aimed at ironing out differences within the ruling party, comes in the wake of mounting discontent among some legislators who have expressed displeasure over the slow pace of development works in their constituencies. Many of them have blamed the implementation of the Congress government's five pre-poll guarantees for the delay.
As part of the initiative, Siddaramaiah on Tuesday held discussions with ministers and MLAs from Mysuru, Chamarajanagar, Tumakuru, Kodagu, Hassan and Dakshina Kannada districts.
He is scheduled to meet legislators from Bidar, Kalaburagi, Yadgir, Raichur, Koppal, Vijayanagara and Ballari districts on Wednesday. According to sources, these interactions are likely to continue till Saturday.
Notably, Deputy Chief Minister and Karnataka Congress president D K Shivakumar was not included in the meetings, a decision that raised eyebrows in political circles.
However, Shivakumar downplayed the development, saying he had no objection to the chief minister holding meetings with legislators.
"The CM is using his authority to hold meetings with legislators. I have no objection to that. He has received feedback from MLAs via Congress general secretary Randeep Surjewala and is now acting upon it. I too have conducted meetings with some legislators, especially regarding Bengaluru development," Shivakumar told reporters on Tuesday.
Home Minister G Parameshwara, who attended the meeting, told reporters later in the evening that the discussions were focused solely on development works.
"There were no discussions on politics," he clarified.