Veteran Karnataka Congress leader H Vishwanath, who has been contemplating quitting the party like other senior leaders in recent months, escalated his threat on Monday.
In a letter to AICC General Secretary KC Venugopal, Vishwanath announced that he may soon quit the party, and blamed Chief Minister Siddaramaiah for rarely consulting him on important issues.
“Many senior leaders are leaving Congress Party, because of the arrogant attitude of the CM Mr. Siddaramaiah,” Vishwanath said in the three-page letter.
“I may too leave Congress Party because of a lot of insult shown to me by CM many times,” he added.
The former Member of Parliament, who has been in the Congress for four decades, said he has not only been sidelined, but also forced to watch the party unity crumble. The Karnataka Congress lacks harmony between the CM and cabinet members, he noted.
“Most of the senior Congress men are not allowed to express their views,” he said, calling it a major issue in the state.
“If I can tell you frankly in simple words, there is hardly any co-ordination between the party and the Government in my state.”
Vishwanath’s letter comes months after the party faced high-profile defections to the BJP, including veteran leaders SM Krishna and V Srinivas Prasad. Earlier, it was reported that the veteran leader had been holding meetings with both supporters and prominent community figures while he mulled over his decision.
He also said that the party had not taken steps to propagate its own history and glory, while ignoring the need for programmes to include women, students and farmers. He noted that “some ministers are facing criminal charges and the govt is keeping quiet. Our govt is facing a lot of embarrassment from [the] past four years.”
“The most unfortunate part of this story is the ardent Congress men with decades of political knowhow like myself are totally out casted,” he wrote.
As a freelance writer, he said, he has written articles that question the government and its issues in the state. “I had to pay for this. I was humiliated, insulted, and emotionally isolated, by my own men.”
