Revamp ministry before bypolls, Cong MLAs tell CM

A group of senior Congress MLAs, aspiring to become ministers, met Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday and urged him to revamp the Council of Ministers before the byelections to the three Assembly constituencies scheduled for August 21.

The MLAs, about 35 of them, met the chief minister at his home office Krishna.

It is the first time ministerial aspirants in the ruling party have come together to exert pressure on the chief minister. K B Koliwad, Dr A B Malaakaraddy, K N Rajanna and R V Devraj are among the legislators who met Siddaramaiah.

It was learnt that they had taken an appointment with the chief minister for the meeting.

Party sources said Siddaramaiah and KPCC chief G Parameshwara had tentatively planned to go to Delhi on August 8 to discuss the demand for ministerial berths by senior legislators with the party high command, but reportedly dropped the plan following the announcement of the byelections.

Fearing that the party would now postpone the expansion in view of the bypolls, the MLAs met the chief minister.

Currently, there are four vacancies in the Council.

Necessary steps

“We have requested the chief minister to give an opportunity to the deserving MLAs to serve as ministers. He (chief minister) said he will take necessary steps after consulting the party high command,” Koliwad told reporters after the meeting.

Sources said the MLAs asked Siddaramaiah to assess the performance of all the ministers and drop those who had been ineffective and failed to perform up to the mark, without any hesitation.

Many of the ministers had been lethargic and brought a bad name to the government due to their inefficiency. They all have to be shown the door, the MLAs told the chief minister.

According to sources, the MLAs were unanimous in their demand that the chief minister revamp the Council of Ministers and reshuffle the portfolios.

Besides, they have asked the chief minister to reserve at least 50 per cent of posts of heads of State-owned public sector undertakings (PSUs) for MLAs.

The MLAs also want the heads of PSUs to be appointed before the bypolls.

It was learnt that the MLAs have, at the same time, assured Siddaramaiah that they will stand by him through ‘thick and thin’.

They suggested that the chief minister form teams of MLAs for publicising the schemes and programmes of the government.

Siddaramaiah reportedly said he would soon form teams of MLAs, comprising 15 legislators each, and give them responsibility to work for the coming byelections.