SR Patil, the working President of Karnataka North Congress has reportedly submitted his resignation. According to reports, he has cited ‘unsatisfactory performance’ in the recent assembly elections as the reason.
The usual singers in media and Congress have been hailing Rahul Gandhi as the hero of the Congress-JDS coalition government and calling it as a victory for Rahul Gandhi and his leadership, but the chinks in Congress’ armour have never been more visible.
Patil has reportedly stated that he has sent his resignation via email to Rahul Gandhi taking moral responsibility for the party’s unsatisfactory performance in the recent assembly elections and added that had his party won more seats in North Karnataka they would have formed the government on their own. Patil has reportedly emailed his resignation to Rahul Gandhi on May 25 but is yet to receive a response as Rahul Gandhi is currently on a vacation abroad.
There are some reports claiming that Patil has resigned due to ‘ill-treatment‘ received after the elections. The reports, citing sources from party insiders state that Patil was miffed as he was neither consulted on the alliance with JD(S) nor his efforts of being the deputy CM under Lingayat quota were successful and hence has decided to resign.
There were also recent reports stating that senior leaders who have served two terms as ministers in the previous governments would be kept out of the cabinet and assigned party work. It is notable here that in north Karnataka, which is Lingayat dominated region, the Congress has won only 8 seats despite their tactics of a separate Lingayat religion.
The Karnataka BJP has called the incident of SR Patil resigning as the ‘beginning of the downfall’ of the Congress-JDS alliance government.
The downfall of the empire that was built after mocking people’s mandate has begun. @INCKarnataka senior leader Sri. S R Patil resigns. This is only the beginning of the downfall of power hungry government.
— BJP Karnataka (@BJP4Karnataka) June 3, 2018
Congress has mostly made a mess out of the Karnataka verdict. Be it the prolonged tussle for the deputy CM post of the distribution of cabinet berths, the friction and disagreements between the alliance partners have been quite apparent. Then Kumaraswamy officially declared that he is at the mercy of Congress as far as running Karnataka is concerned. Looking at the long history of animosity and political rivalry between the two parties, that is bound to have made some JDS leaders angry. Days after the election results, a Congress MLA had declared that the tapes that were alleging BJP’s attempts to bribe the MLAs were fake.
The Kumaraswamy government passed the floor test on May 25th but the state of Karnataka is yet to get its cabinet ministers. After many reports of squabbles and disagreements, it is only 3 days back that the parties have declared they have finally ‘agreed’ on the number of berths being shared. The ministers are yet to be sworn in as Rahul Gandhi and Sonia Gandhi are yet to return from abroad.
Anti-BJP media and political mass have hailed the coalition government in Karnataka the victory of democracy, but Kumaraswamy’s affirmation to Congress’ mercy and the recent developments have only clarified one thing, that it has been only a mockery of democracy where a leader with 37 MLAs gets to become CM and later declared he is unable to work for the state as he is at the mercy of the bigger partner. There are too many power tussles and too many delays in the Karnataka’s government’s functioning. It only reaffirms the doubts that the government in Karnataka is on a shaky boat, a boat that is already showing cracks.
