Finally, the discontent amongst the Congress leaders in Karnataka has divulged after SR Patil, the working president of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) had announced his resignation. Submitting his resignation to Congress president Rahul Gandhi through email, Patil said that he has resigned due to the party’s poor performance in the recently concluded assembly election and he took the moral responsibility for that.
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Patil said that he was in-charge of the Congress’ performance in North Karnataka. Had his party won more seats from North Karnataka, Congress would have formed the government alone. Patil submitted his resignation at a time when senior Congress leaders are expressing their dissatisfaction over not being included him into the ministry of the JD(S)-Congress coalition government. The Congress could win only 8 seats in North Karnataka and lost most of the seats to BJP.
But insiders from Congress said that Patil had resigned because of other reasons. First, he got ill-treatment after the Congress’ debacle in the state assembly election. Even he was not consulted or taken into confidence in talks that led to the Congress-JD(S) alliance and his efforts to become deputy CM under the Lingayat quota failed.
It has also been alleged that a section of the Congress leaders, particularly from Vijayapura, Bagalkot and Gadag, were not happy with Patil for not campaigning for party candidates. Patil focussed mainly on Badami where Siddaramaiah was the candidate. Even as former party MLA urged the party leadership not to give Patil any post responsible in the party for the recent defeat of the party.
After his resignation, Patil told to media that he was not lobbying for any post. If the party offers him a responsible job, he would take it. But he was not leaving the Congress Party. He would like to serve the party without any post. Congress high command is yet to respond to Patils’ resignation.
Sixty-nine years old Patil had been the minister in the erstwhile Siddaramiah government and he served as the Minister for Infrastructure, IT, science and technology, planning and statistics in the Government of Karnataka. Before that, he also served as the leader of opposition in the Karnataka Legislative Council.
