Berth aspirants meet Siddu, want 25 'inept' ministers out

A group of Congress legislators, who are aspiring to be ministers, on Monday urged Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to revamp his council of ministers at the earliest and give an opportunity to the loyal party legislators.

About 10 legislators met the chief minister and briefed him about their plan to mount pressure on the party high command to give an opportunity to loyal MLAs. S T Somashekar, R V Devaraj, M Krishnappa, Munirathna and K N Rajanna are among the MLAs who met the chief minister.

Sources in the party said the legislators are demanding that the chief minister drop a minimum of 25 “non-performing” ministers and induct them in the council of ministers.

They believe that the party’s image is getting dented due to inefficiency of certain ministers. The legislators are, however, not naming the “non-performing” ministers. A section of leaders in the party are of the view that the legislators are raising the demand at Siddaramaiah’s behest. The chief minister is anticipating trouble when he takes up the revamping exercise, which he is likely to do by this month end. So he has begun the groundwork by making the legislators raise the demand for dropping the “non-performing” ministers.

When contacted, Rajanna said the chief minister had given an appointment at 5 pm on April 9 for “like-minded” legislators to meet him. About 35 MLAs will meet the chief minister and urge him to revamp the council of ministers. A memorandum will be submitted to him on the steps to be taken to bring the Congress back to power in the 2018 Assembly polls, he added.

Somashekar said the legislators are seeking an appointment with party president Sonia Gandhi and vice president Rahul Gandhi. “We want to explain our demand to our leaders. Our demand is just and in the interests of the party. We want the party to come back to power in the 2018 Assembly elections,” he added.

At present, the chief minister is busy in the process of appointing members to various boards and corporations. He will be appointing at least 800 members. The selection exercise is going on at an undisclosed destination. Soon after meeting the MLAs, he left for the undisclosed destination to complete the exercise.