Karnataka CM Steps in for Damage Control After Cabinet Reshuffle

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. (Photo Courtesy: The News Minute)

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Monday stepped in to mitigate the discontent in the ruling Congress over the cabinet reshuffle. In the reshuffle, 14 ministers were dropped and 13 new faces were inducted on Sunday.

Siddaramaiah spoke to some of the dropped ministers and explained to them the reasons for revamping the ministry.

The Chief Minister has advised the angry members not to rebel and requested them to help the government in serving the people as lawmakers.

Ambareesh’s Resignation Rejected

Supporters of ministers who were dropped from the cabinet staged protest. (Photo: TNM)

While Kannada rebel actor MH Ambareesh resigned as Mandya lawmaker for being sacked as a minister, Deputy Speaker NH Shivashankara Reddy’s resignation was rejected for not being written in accordance with the rules.

Siddaramaiah also talked to Ambareesh and asked him to not make any hasty decisions as the party needed his services in the run-up to 2018 Assembly elections.

Similarly, in a bid to pacify supporters of Dinesh Gundu Rao, one of the removed ministers, and a lawmaker from Bengaluru, Congress general secretary Janardan Dwivedi announced in New Delhi that party president Sonia Gandhi had approved Rao’s appointment as the party’s state unit working president.

Rao’s Supporters Hold Dawn-to-Dusk Shutdown

Dinesh Gundu Rao. (Photo Courtesy: Twitter/@Dineshgrao)

Earlier on Monday, about 200 Dinesh Gundu Rao’s supporters and party workers demonstrated near the chief minister’s official residence to protest his removal from the cabinet. Rao, a three-time lawmaker and party’s national spokesman, is the son of former Congress chief minister R Gundu Rao.

A dawn-to-dusk shutdown was also observed in the Mysuru region, with thousands of people staging rallies and demos, to protest removal of Srinivasa Prasad as a minister along with Ambareesh and others.

As the chief minister’s consultations with senior cabinet colleagues remained inconclusive, list of portfolios for the 13 new ministers, including nine with cabinet rank and four ministers of state, was not sent to Governor Vajubhai R Vala.

Meanwhile, on the advice of the chief minister, the governor elevated Agriculture Minister Krishna Byre Gowda and Medical Education Minister Sharan Prakash R Patil to cabinet rank.

Resentment is also brewing in a dozen aspiring lawmakers who failed to get ministerial berths despite lobbying, since only one more cabinet post is vacant.

(With inputs from IANS.)

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