M.B. Patil rejects Yatnal's signature campaign claim as baseless

Large and Medium Industries and Infrastructure Development Minister M.B. Patil on Monday rejected as baseless, reckless and irresponsible the allegation by MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnal that he was part of an effort to unseat former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.

Speaking to reporters, Mr. Patil said Mr. Yatnal should stop making such statements, adding that the MLA appeared to have developed a habit of speaking irresponsibly. He warned that continued false claims and smear campaigns would force a different course of action to give a fitting reply.

Mr. Patil said Mr. Yatnal's claim that Congress leaders Zameer Ahmed Khan, Satish Jarkiholi and he himself opposed Mr. Siddaramaiah continuing as Chief Minister, and collected signatures from 36 MLAs to remove him, was completely false. He said no such signatures were gathered, that the party has no practice of collecting MLAs' signatures before leadership changes, and that no Congress leader has lost faith in Mr. Siddaramaiah's leadership.

He said the decision to replace the Chief Minister was taken by the party high command for various reasons and there was no need to create confusion over it. Mr. Siddaramaiah and Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, he said, are the party's top leaders and remain its leaders irrespective of whether they hold positions of power. He added that after the change of Chief Minister, Rahul Gandhi met Mr. Siddaramaiah personally and urged him not to step back from electoral politics.

On reported differences, Mr. Patil said there was no rift between Mr. Siddaramaiah and Minister Satish Jarkiholi. Minor differences of opinion are natural in politics, he said, noting that the Minister's brother, Balachandra Jarkiholi, has described the two as long-standing friends who patched up after differences. He acknowledged some confusion arose between Minister Zameer Ahmed Khan and Mr. Siddaramaiah during the Davanagere by-election, but said it was wrong to portray this as a permanent rift.

Mr. Patil suggested Mr. Yatnal was making the allegations to secure re-entry into the BJP, which had expelled him. He recalled that when Mr. Yatnal left the BJP, several leaders, including himself, supported him, and that he contested as an independent in the 2015 Legislative Council election and won with help from second-preference votes that defeated the BJP candidate. Mr. Yatnal later returned to the BJP with the backing of B.S. Yediyurappa despite opposition from leaders including Jagadish Shettar and Pralhad Joshi, and subsequently turned against Mr. Yediyurappa and his family, Mr. Patil said.