Bengaluru: Taking on the Congress party over the much delayed cabinet expansion, cop turned MLA from Hirekerur, B.C. Patil on Sunday took to twitter to express his displeasure over the delay.
In his hard hitting remark, Mr Patil lashed out saying, “Dragging the expansion of cabinet in Karnataka is an act of insult to legislators, killing democracy, upholding dictatorship in the name of party." He tagged this tweet to @INCKarnataka @dineshgrao @RahulGandhi @siddaramaiah and @DrParameshwara too. There were also reports that this was an attempt to play the Lingayat card.
Speaking to various news channels, Mr Patil said he is the lone Lingayat Congress MLA to be elected from three districts—Dharwad, Gadag and Haveri. “Though my constituency is part of Haveri district there is no Congress MLA from neighbouring districts as well. Therefore, I was a strong aspirant for a cabinet berth even when the coalition government was formed and now a stronger contender as my constituency has been deprived of a ministerial berth for the last 36 years."
Defending his tweet, he said that he had not used any harsh words adding that it was an outburst against the delay in cabinet expansion. "I am not angry with anyone, nor am I desperate. I will not quit this party and will continue to remain in the party," he said cryptically.
He wondered angrily why the party was keeping six berths vacant? Was this not an insult to party MLAs who have been aspirants for the posts? "If the party had given serious thought to the dissent likely to arise, they should have appointed ministers in the first expansion itself. Is this not an act of heaping insult on elected MLAs? Keeping six berths vacant surely is an act of insult to legislators who are hoping to get into the cabinet," he rationalized.
