India, June 26 -- Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah met with two dissenting Congress legislators, B R Patil and Raju Kage, on Wednesday evening in a bid to defuse rising tensions within the party. The meeting took place shortly after the CM returned from his trip to New Delhi, where he held discussions with the Congress high command.

According to official sources, the closed-door meeting also saw the presence of Housing Minister B Z Zameer Ahmed Khan, whose department is at the centre of corruption allegations raised by one of the MLAs.

The internal rift surfaced publicly after Aland MLA B R Patil accused the Housing Department of corruption, alleging bribery in the allocation of public housing units. Meanwhile, Kagwad MLA Raju Kage...