Amid reports of a rift between the ruling coalition partners Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) in Karnataka, Congress on Tuesday rushed senior party leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad and AICC general secretary in-charge of the state KC Venugopal to Bengaluru to sort things out.
The development comes amid voices of dissent gaining ground within the Congress as two of its MLAs – Ramesh Jharkiholi and K Sudhakar – met BJP leader S M Krishna at his Bengaluru residence on Sunday.
Jharkiholi and Sudhakar are among the seven-eight MLAs identified in the Congress as being opposed to JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy continuing as the chief minister of Karnataka.
The coalition government in the southern state has been fragile since its inception with reports of its collapse surfacing every then and now.
Azad and Venugopal are likely to hold discussions with the top leaders of the party in the state in order to sort things out.
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Of the 28 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka, the BJP bagged 25 while the Congress won only one seat. Last week, BJP state unit chief BS Yeddyurappa claimed to have numbers to topple the coalition government and form a BJP government in the state again.
In 2018 Karnataka Assembly elections, the BJP had won 105 members and emerged as the single-largest party in the 225-member house. The ruling coalition has 117 members — 79 of the Congress, 37 of the JD(S) and one of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).