Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Jul 16: The coalition leaders, who have failed to convince the other dissident leaders to withdraw their resignation letters, as a last ditch effort, met former minister, Ramalinga Reddy, and tried to win his confidence. Top leaders of the coalition government, chief minister, H D Kumaraswamy, chairman of the coalition government's coordination committee, Siddaramaiah, deputy chief minister Dr G Parameshwar, Mallikarjun Kharge, state in-charge of Congress affairs K C Venugopal, and Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president Dinesh Gundu Rao, met him at his farm house at Hoody here and made efforts the entire Sunday to make him change his mind.

Reddy however, refused to make any firm commitment He said he would attend the assembly session on Monday and meet the speaker. He said that he would speak politics only after getting information from the speaker.

Mallikarjun Kharge had a very long talk with Reddy. Sources said that after everyone left, D K Shivakumar and Kumaraswamy continued discussions with him till late night, but Reddy refused to give out his mind. Unconfirmed reports said that Reddy promised the leaders not to join the BJP but refused to confirm that he would withdraw resignation.

On Sunday morning, working president of KPCC, Ishwar Khandre, and senior Congress leader, H K Patil, met Reddy at his Lakkasandra residence and held discussions with him. They told the media that they had urged Reddy to withdraw his resignation and exuded confidence that he would uphold their request.