Upset with being dropped from the Cabinet, actor and former Housing Minister M.H. Ambareesh decided to quit as an MLA and sent his resignation letter to the Deputy Speaker's office through an aide on Monday noon.
However, Deputy Speaker Shivashankara Reddy, who is currently officiating as Speaker, has rejected the resignation letter on the grounds that the MLA has failed to personally handover the resignation as per norms.
Meanwhile, even as Mr. Ambareesh’s supporters criticised Chief Minister Siddaramaiah for dropping him from the Cabinet, some rationalists and social activists in the town have welcomed the move.
Members of Janapara Kriya Vedike and some other organisations have thanked Chief Minister for removing Mr. Ambareesh from the Cabinet. They staged a demonstration near the Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) bus stand on the Bengaluru-Mysuru highway here and distributed sweets to the general public.
Later, in a press release issued here on Monday, the Vedike said that Mr. Ambareesh had failed to safeguard the interests of farmers and the common man during his three-year tenure as Minister.
Though a good number of farmers had committed suicide due to severe drought, he [Mr. Ambareesh] had failed to respond like a “responsible elected representative” to revive the Mysugar Mill and to other issues pertaining to drought, the Vedike release added.
