JOIN USSiddaramaiah defends ministers' selection amid heartburn for some
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday defended the selection of ministers for his Cabinet, even as some leaders expressed disappointment for being excluded from the list. This comes in the wake of 24 newly inducted ministers taking oath on Saturday at a ceremony held in Raj Bhavan.
The Congress leadership has ensured a mix of fresh and senior faces in the list. Also, those who won for the first time have not been included in the Cabinet. In effect, some districts such as Kodagu, Haveri, Hassan and Chikkamagaluru have not found representation, Siddaramaiah told mediapersons here.
He said they had ensured a full Cabinet (34 ministers including himself and his Deputy D K Shivakumar), as they wanted to bring in efficient administration and implement the five guarantees promised to people. The modalities for the implementation of these assurances will be taken in the next Cabinet, he added.
Unhappy that he was not considered for the Cabinet, former minister T B Jayachandra said he was surprised to find his name missing. He would take it up with the AICC leadership at the earliest, he told the media. “I have been a party loyalist ever since I first contested and won in 1978. I have won the Assembly elections seven times till now. When I first became a legislator, many of today’s ministers were not even in the picture,” he said.
A leader from the Kunchatiga Vokkaliga community, Jayachandra said the community had been supporting Congress for ages, with them being the deciding factor in Chitradurga, Tumakuru and Chikkaballapur Lok Sabha constituencies.
Meanwhile, supporters of Chamarajanagar MLA Puttaranga Shetty staged a protest in front of Raj Bhavan condemning the party’s decision to exclude their leader from the Cabinet. Speaking to mediapersons, Shetty said he was shocked that his name was missing as until the last minute, his name was a part of the list. While the party has offered him the Deputy Speaker’s post, Shetty said he was still undecided on accepting it.
Similarly in Mysuru, supporters of Tanveer Sait staged a protest. In Haveri, fans of Rudrappa Lamani protested demanding that Lamani, a senior leader of the Banjara community, be made the minister.
Virajpet legislator A S Ponnanna lamented that the party had missed the opportunity to name a minister from Kodagu. The Congress managed to win two seats this time in this district, which otherwise is a BJP bastion.
Former minister and Haliyal MLA R V Deshpande too was in for disappointment. In the previous Siddaramaiah government, Deshpande had held the higher education and later the industries portfolio. However, Deshpande told DH that he would take it in his stride and continue working as a Congress MLA.
While maintaining that he personally was not disappointed, KPCC working president and MLC Saleem Ahmed said there was an expectation that at least a few MLCs would be inducted into the Cabinet. “We do not know why that was not done,” he said.