Agriculture Marketing Minister Sharanabasappagouda Darshnapur stated that he would abide by the chief minister’s decision in connection with proposal made by Karnataka Lokayukta  Justice N Santosh Hegde to drop him from the ministry.
Reacting to this he said “if Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy likes to drop me from the ministry for defaulting in filing the assets and liabilities before the Lokayukta in time Iam ready to accept it”.
Speaking to ‘Deccan Herald’ here, Mr Darshnapur said, the Lokayukta, in November last, had sent a report to Karnataka Governor T N Chaturvedi seeking action against those MLAs and MLCs who had not filed their assets and liabilities on time.
However, he said, through an advocate, he had submitted to the Lokayukta that the Governor was not the competent authority under the Karnataka Lokayukta Act for the submission of the report.
The chief minister was the competent authority when the issue concerned the ministers, he added.
Thereby, as the Lokayukta has now sent a letter to the chief minister seeking dropping of Sports and Youth Affairs Minister Hanumantappa Alkod, and himself, Mr Darshnapur said, he would abide by the chief minister’s decision.
However, he maintained that the Lokayukta had given three months time for the chief minister to initiate action.
Kanta’s reaction
Meanwhile, speaking to ‘Deccan Herald’ in the city  former minister S K Kanta welcomed the Lokayukta's stand on the issue.
The decision taken by the Lokayukta in writing a letter to the chief minister seeking the ouster of Mr Darshnapur and Mr Alkod was in accordance to the High Court judgment delivered in the case of Hotte Paksha Rangaswamy Vs Chief Election Commissioner earlier. However, he urged the chief minister to act on the letter written by the Lokayukta, and immediately drop both the ministers.