Will wait till Monday for CM to act, says Ambareesh

Housing Minister M H Ambareesh on Thursday said he had no regrets over publicly airing his displeasure against Chief Minister Siddaramaiah for being sidelined in administrative matters.

Ambareesh had expressed his unhappiness in a letter to Siddaramaiah on Wednesday, over not being consulted during the appointment of the director from Mandya district to the Apex Bank. He had returned to the capital from Belagavi, where the legislature session is on.

In an interaction with the media at his residence, the minister he would wait till Monday to see whether his choice of candidate is appointed director. The chief minister had called him and assured to look into his demand, he said and added that Siddaramaiah cannot do without the support of the people of Mandya.

“The chief minister did not keep his words. My self-respect is hurt. I could not have kept quite,” Ambareesh, who is district incharge minister of Mandya, said. He said he had never considered resigning from the Cabinet.

He said if he had not expressed his mind, people would have pointed fingers at him, saying that he was only safeguarding his interest. 

Ambareesh said that he had not objected to Siddaramaiah’s choice for the post of president of Mandya District Cooperative Central bank. “At that time, Siddaramaiah had assured me through the co-operation minister that I would be consulted during the process of appointment of director to the Apex Bank”, he said.

Asked why Siddaramaiah had not kept his words, the minister said it could be due to pressure from Cooperation Minister H S Mahadeva Prasad and former minister and Malavalli Congress MLA P M Narendraswamy.

Ambareesh said he was the most eligible minister to continue in the Siddaramaiah cabinet as he was “clean” and had “nothing to hide”.