Drop some ministers from Cabinet, MLAs tell CM

Bengaluru, NT Bureau: There has been pressure on Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his deputy DK Shivakumar to drop some ministers from the Cabinet on account of them being unresponsive to Congress MLAs.

The demand was made by some party MLAs during the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting held at a private venue in Bengaluru on Thursday.

The purpose of the meeting was to formulate a counter to the frenzied offensive by Opposition parties BJP and JD(S) over the Valmiki Corporation scam in the ongoing monsoon session.

However, the MLAs raised the issue of nonreceptive ministers. Some have suggested that about nine ministers were on the receiving end of complaints by MLAs. The friction between the lawmakers and the Cabinet members has been an open secret for a while now.

Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) working president Vinay Kulkarni has been complaining behind closed doors that ministers in CM Siddaramaiah’s Cabinet mistreated MLAs. He claimed that when he and other lawmakers visited the chambers of ministers, they were treated disrespectfully.

Kulkarni had also accused Minister for Urban Development and Town Planning Byrathi Suresh, a Siddaramaiah loyalist, of interfering in the affairs of Karnataka Urban Water Supply and Drainage Board (KUWSDB). Kulkarni is the KUWSDB Chairman.

Vinay had even alleged corruption in the board and offered to quit. The other aspect of the issue is that a section of Congress MLAs believe that the guarantees work against their interest. It is common practice for ruling party MLAs to flock to the CM and demand off-Budget funds for local infrastructure projects.

However, in this term Siddaramaiah has had to turn them away due to the financial burden of the guarantees. This has added to the annoyance of the MLAs.