Lingayat officers' row: Everything is alright, says S S Mallikarjun

Congress lawmaker Shamanur Shivashankarappa's minister son S S Mallikarjun on Thursday sought to maintain distance from his father's sensational claim that Lingayat officers are suffering under the current government.

However, two Lingayat Congress MLAs - Vinay Kulkarni and Vijayanand Kashappanavar - spoke in different tones over the issue raised by Shamanur.

"The CM and (Shamanur) will talk it out. It's a closed chapter," Mallikarjun said.

Asked about Shamanur's statement that Lingayat officers have faced injustice, Mallikarjun said: "Nobody has faced injustice. But if something like that has happened, then the CM will address it." On the transfer of Davangere deputy commissioner who was a Lingayat, Mallikarjun said it was a routine administrative decision.

"Everything is alright," he said.

However, Kulkarni said there must be some truth in Shamanur's claim. "The CM and us...we're like family. If there's any such problem, we are capable of fixing it by talking to the CM," he said.

The former minister even said that a few Lingayat officers had met him with grievances related to postings. "I got their problem fixed," he said. "I request officials: let them approach us directly. We will take it up with the CM."

Kulkarni said Congress has 37 Lingayat MLAs this time. "It's the highest since Veerendra Patil's term as chief minister. Those who say Lingayats didn't vote for Congress are fools. This time, Lingayats voted for Congress in a big way. After much effort, we managed to get the community's support, especially in North Karnataka," he said.

Kashappanavar said the government has not caused injustice to any community while disapproving Shamanur's act of speaking out publicly. "The right thing would have been to talk to the CM directly. It wasn't right to speak openly," he said.

CM hosts dinner for ministers

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah hosted his Cabinet colleagues for dinner at his official residence, Cauvery, on Thursday.

The dinner assumed significance as it came in the backdrop of complaints from Congress MLAs against ministers being inaccessible, which was affecting the image of the administration. The unscheduled dinner was seen as Siddaramaiah's attempt to take his ministers into confidence while also giving them some pep talk.

Siddaramaiah's deputy D K Shivakumar, Dr Sharan Prakash Patil, R B Timmapur, Santosh Lad, Byrathi Suresh, Laxmi Hebbalkar, KH Muniyappa, Zameer Ahmed Khan, Dr M C Sudhakar, N S Boseraju, K Venkatesh, D Sudhakar, Shivaraj Tangadagi, H K Patil, among others, attended the dinner union.