Bengaluru: Former minister and Mandya city Congress MLA M H Ambarish's trusted lieutenant Amaravathi Chandrashekar on Saturday night assured top Congress leaders that the actor-politician would contest the Assembly polls on May 12 though he originally dropped a bombshell with his announcement to skip this year's elections.
Mr Chandrashekar, who was summoned by party general secretary in charge of Karnataka, K C Venugopal, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and others, conveyed Mr Ambarish's positive response to them, ending speculation about the former minister's candidature.
His defiance had prompted the top brass to contemplate fielding either former minister M S Atmananda or Mr Ravi Kumar Ganiga in Mandya city.
Upset with Mr Siddaramaiah on being dropped from the Cabinet, Mr Ambarish was indifferent to the announcement of elections, and did not even seek a ticket to contest from Mandya.
He was unresponsive even after KPCC chief, Dr G Parameshwar, sent him the B form, inviting him to contest.
Bengaluru Development Minister, K J George too failed to persuade him to change his mind.
Besides being unhappy over his exit from the cabinet , he is also reportedly upset at not being consulted on the candidates for Mandya district.
Going by sources, Mr Ambarish is not sure of his victory from Mandya city and is upset at the induction of seven JD(S) MLAs into the Congress.
The actor is reportedly afraid of losing his hold on the Vokkaliga voters should JD(S) rebels, Cheluvarayaswamy and Ramesh Bandisiddegowda win the elections and is insisting on a ticket for a close aide, Amaravathy Suresh.
Twitter war, Siddu wins this one
His detractors may term it parochial, but Chief Minister Siddaramaiah may shrug it off as Kannada pride would give him traction with the voters. A Hindi tweet by BJP general secretary in charge of Karnataka P. Muralidhar Rao that was meant to take a dig at Siddaramaiah seemed to have boomeranged with Mr Siddaramaiah posting a Kannada reply saying, “I can’t understand Hindi sir. Please tweet in Kannada or English.” This reply got a huge response that largely showered praises on him.
On Saturday evening, Mr Muralidhar Rao posted a loaded political message that Mr Siddaramaiah by moving to Badami constituency will not only lose Chamundeshwari, but he and his party the entire state.
But Mr Siddaramaiah, instead of directly replying to the tweet, requested Mr Rao to post the message in Kannada or English. The language sentiment expressed got widespread appreciation with his followers and social media enthusiasts retweeting it hundreds of times.
Cauvery: CM seeks appointment with PM
CM Siddaramaiah has sought an appointment with PM Modi to discuss the Supreme Court direction to the Centre on framing a scheme to implement the court’s order on the Cauvery water dispute.
He said the SC on April 9 directed the Centre to submit a draft scheme before May 3. “Our government is strongly opposed to the formation of the Cauvery Management Board as it not constitutional and the SC has not directed the mechanism. The reference to the Cauvery Management Board in the tribunal's award is in the nature of a recommendation and not a direction. The said scheme recommended by the tribunal was also not endorsed by the apex court in its judgment on February 16, 2018. Setting up of the CMB goes beyond the necessity of implementation of the award as passed by the tribunal and as modified by Supreme Court. These provisions are destructive of federal scheme of the Constitution as they violate the powers of the state to manage its water in Cauvery.”
