BENGALURU: Two days after a major rejig of his ministry, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah allocated plum portfolios to his supporters while retaining key ministries like finance, housing and information and public relations for himself.
Senior leaders like former Speakers Kagodu Thimmappa and K R Ramesh Kumar were assigned revenue and health and family welfare respectively, fellow Kuruba and former minister H Y Meti has been given the portfolio of excise.
Veteran leader M Mallikarjun Kharge’s son and youngest minister Priyank Kharge was given independent charge of IT & BT along with tourism which was so far held by large and medium industries minister R V Deshpande.
In a significant move, Mr Siddaramaiah added information and public relations to the list of portfolios held by himself, setting off speculation that he would supervise the image-building campaign ahead of polls to the Legislative Assembly in 2018.
Vishwanath to Sonia Gandhi: Change CM, save Congress
Coming down heavily on CM Siddaramaiah for failing to take party leaders into confidence ahead of Sunday’s reshuffle of the ministry, senior Congress leader and former MP H. Vishwanath urged central leaders to change the leadership in Karnataka.
In his three-page letter to party president Sonia Gandhi, he urged her to take cognizance of affairs of the party in Karnataka. He stated “if the situation warrants and if you (Sonia Gandhi) feel that a drastic step like leadership change is needed, you and the party can resort to such a drastic step. Any step which can save the party is welcome at this juncture,” he added.
Mr. Vishwanath requested Mrs Gandhi to send observers to the state to set the house in order, and even suggested that vice-president Rahul Gandhi would be the ideal leader to handle the situation. “Because of wrong doings of Mr Siddaramaiah, the Congress has lost lot of its support base to both the BJP and JD(S).
“The administrative machinery has collapsed due to lackadaisical approach and autocratic attitude of Mr Siddaramaiah,” he added. Mr Vishwanath also criticized former revenue minister V Srinivasa Prasad and former housing minister M H. Ambareesh, stating that both leaders are opportunists in politics.
Qamarul: Will expose Kharge in HK soon
Angry over being dropped from the Cabinet, former minority welfare minister, Qamarul Islam declared that he would soon tour various parts of Hyderabad-Karnataka to campaign among the minority community to expose “Mallikarjun Kharge and the Congress party’s machinations” to use minorities for their benefit.
Without naming Mr Kharge or CM Siddaramaiah, Mr Islam said there was no need for others to work hard to achieve a ‘Congress Mukt Bharat’. In the State, the process had been initiated by Congress leaders themselves. “The recent Cabinet reshuffle is a case in point,” he told reporters here.
Mr Islam claimed, “I know, it is Mr Kharge who should be blamed for my exit. He even told me that he had recommended Tanveer Sait’s name for induction. Mr Kharge will have to pay a heavy price for this.” He plans to meet AICC president Sonia Gandhi after June 25 in Delhi and seek a “convincing explanation” for his unceremonious removal from cabinet.
