Sulking Sriramulu adds to CM BS Yediyurappa's woes

Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa is facing fresh trouble as his Cabinet colleague, Health Minister B Sriramulu has been sulking for the past few days.

Apart from having skipped his ministerial duties the past three days, including Thursday’s Cabinet meeting and Friday’s meeting with top government officials, Sriramulu also did not meet the chief minister following the party’s landslide victory in the recent bypolls.

The conspicuous absence of Sriramulu is being seen as a sign of the ST leader’s disgruntlement with the BJP leadership for not fulfilling the promise of appointing him as a deputy chief minister, made ahead of the 2018 Assembly polls.

According to sources, Sriramulu’s diminishing prospects of a better berth in the Cabinet is said to be his main grouse. “He is also wary that elevation of Gokak legislator Ramesh Jarkiholi, who won on a BJP ticket in the bypolls after defecting from Congress, would severely dent his image as a prominent ST leader in the BJP,” according to a source.

Jarkiholi is said to have been promised a deputy chief minister berth.

The other complaints of unhappy Sriramulu include that he has not been suitably rewarded for his efforts during Assembly polls in 2018 and the general elections in 2019. He was also in-charge of Hunsur constituency during the recent bypolls, - one of the three constituencies where BJP lost.

Meanwhile, there is speculation that all three deputy chief ministerial positions will be scrapped. The move, it is said, could help the BJP mitigate the heartburn among senior BJP leaders who have been sulking about Laxman Savadi and C N Ashwath Narayan being made Yediyurappa’s deputies. Plus, scrapping all deputy CM posts can prevent others from demanding a similar elevation going forward.