Karnataka: Expectations soar as CM Siddaramaiah completes 30 months

Bengaluru: Amidst the crumbling law and order situation and absence of concerted efforts to address the farm crisis besides a perceived neglect of Bengaluru, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his team completed 30 months, the halfway mark of his tenure.

A telling comment came from one of his close confidants who said on condition of anonimity, “Chief minister, Siddaramaiah is good. But his team is not performing, so government programmes are not being implemented effectively.” To his credit, Mr Siddaramaiah and his team implemented lot of programmes like Anna Bhagya and introduced online auction of farm produce. Seeing the potential of this online sale/auction of farm goods, the NDA government took note of this. Passing the legislation which makes it mandatory for the government to reserve funds for SC and ST development is described as a game-changer.

The CM has been trying to give an impression that he is an able administrator but many of his ministers are reportedly not doing their job properly. Recently, during his visit to New Delhi, he tried to seek permission for a reshuffle so that he could to get rid of non-performers and bring in new faces. However, due to the intervention of party leader Mallikarjun Kharge the reshuffle did not happen. But the opposition parties claim the ‘captain’ is responsible for the lacklustre administration.

BJP spokesperson Suresh Kumar said, “Forget about consulting opposition parties even for courtesy’s sake, the chief minister, I think, does not even consult Congress leaders. He does not carry a positive outlook.”

The mishandling of law and order and issues like Yettinahole and Kalasa Banduri project forced people from coastal Karnataka to express the desire to have a seperate state of Tulu Nadu.

Even after All India Congress Committee vice-president Rahul Gandhi visited the state, more than 150 farmers committed suicide. The drop in the ranking of Karnataka in the list of states for “ease of doing business” clearly reflected on Mr Siddaramaiah’s style of functioning as the portfolio was with him till some time back.

The Congress party getting 76 seats in the 198-seat BBMP proved his perceived neglect of Bengaluru and industry. Still, he said he had done well as he had implemented over 160 promises made in the manifesto released during 2013 assembly elections.

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