Lok Sabha Elections 2024: Karnataka Congress ministers to face axe over poll results?

Bengaluru: With Congress failing to cross the double-digit mark in Karnataka, the party’s high command may penalise ministers who failed to deliver good results in the Lok Sabha polls by replacing them with fresh faces in the Cabinet.

In the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls, the Congress had said that it would hold ministers “accountable” in order to make them have skin in the game.

While the party was expecting 15-20 seats, it ended up with nine seats. The BJP and JD(S) together won 19 out of the 28 constituencies.

On Wednesday, Home Minister G Parameshwara admitted that many ministers suffered upsets over the party’s performance and that the high command may act. He was responding to a question on Congress losing Siddaramaiah’s native Mysore and his deputy D K Shivakumar’s Bangalore Rural seats.

“It’s not just them two (CM and DCM). Me, (Cooperation Minister) K N Rajanna, (Women & Child Development Minister) Laxmi Hebbalkar... many ministers have faced setbacks. We need to wait and see how the high command views this,” Parameshwara said.

Parameshwara, who was Karnataka Congress president for eight years, said his party had estimated 20 seats. “As the ruling party, we should’ve won 20 seats. But our calculations went wrong. We’re content that our vote share increased and we’ve gained nine seats. But we’re not happy,” he said.

The Lok Sabha poll results, according to Parameshwara, are “an alarm bell” for Congress. “We’ve been in the government for a year. Still, people seem unconvinced about us, despite having given guarantees. So, going forward, we need to introspect and ensure good governance over the next four years,” he said.

Now that the Lok Sabha polls are over, several senior lawmakers who were not made ministers may mount pressure on Siddaramaiah to rejig his Cabinet. In October last year, Government Chief Whip Ashok Pattan had claimed that a midterm Cabinet reshuffle would happen and counted himself as a ministerial aspirant.

Chief Minister’s Economic Advisor Basavaraj Rayareddi told DH that it is “high time” for a Cabinet reshuffle. “It is required in order to bring in some administrative discipline. I’ve discussed this with the CM. We have to give good governance. Hopefully, the CM will take a call on this. He’s likely to take some administrative decisions after July 1,” he said.

Lok Sabha Election 2024 results | Check all constituency results here

Odisha Assembly poll 2024 results| Check constituency results here

Andhra Pradesh Assembly poll 2024 results | Check constituency results here

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