In the midst of attempts by the Janata Dal (S) to poach disgruntled MLC and Congress leader C.M. Ibrahim, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president D.K. Shivakumar met Mr. Ibrahim on Saturday night to convince him to stay with the party.
The meeting, which lasted nearly two hours, followed a meeting of the Congress legislator with former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy nearly a week ago. The KPCC chief is learnt to have requested the legislator not to leave the party in haste and also promised to resolve his issues.
“We know that Mr. Kumaraswamy, while inviting Mr. Ibrahim to rejoin the JD(S), promised to provide a respectable post, which could be even that of JD(S) State unit president,” a senior Congress leader told The Hindu. The leader, however, was not sure if Mr. Ibrahim would go back to the JD(S) after resigning as MLC. Mr. Ibrahim, elected to the Council from the Legislative Assembly in 2018, has a term running till June 2024.
A former Union Civil Aviation Minister in H.D. Deve Gowda’s Cabinet in 1996, Mr. Ibrahim joined the Congress after falling out with Mr. Gowda. Though he remained less active politically since 2004, he formally joined the Congress in 2008 after former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah also joined the party in 2006.
While he was seen in the inner circle of Mr. Siddaramaiah for long, he has been sulking in recent times. Mr. Ibrahim was keen to be appointed as Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Council, but the party considered S.R. Patil for the post in December 2018, sources said. He has been inactive in party activities of late. “An orator, who could make a serious situation lively with his banter, has been missing from poll campaigns also. Mr. Ibrahim does not have a good equation with Mr. Siddaramaiah now,” a source pointed out.
The JD(S), meanwhile, is keen to have a Muslim face since the top leaders believe that Muslim voters across the State have deserted them. The JD(S) believes that it lost out on Muslim votes in 2018 after Mr. Siddaramaiah called the regional party the BJP’s “B-team”. There have been attempts to woo Muslim leaders to the party fold since.
