Resenting the induction of MLAs facing charges into the Cabinet, headed by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, senior Congress MLA Malikayya Guttedar has written to AICC president Sonia Gandhi seeking a Cabinet berth for himself.
A six-time MLA, Mr. Guttedar, who represents Afzalpur Assembly constituency in Gulbarga district, attended the AICC meeting in Delhi on Friday, and met Central leaders of the party. He explained to the Central party leaders that the party is facing embarrassment due to the Ministerial berths given to D.K. Shivakumar and R. Roshan Baig.
A former Minister, Mr. Guttedar, who has also served as pro-tem Speaker of the Assembly, explained to Ms. Sonia Gandhi the need for inducting senior legislators with a clean image into the Cabinet to boost the prospects of the party in the Lok Sabha elections in the State. Now, three Cabinet berths are vacant.
Speaking to The Hindu , Mr. Guttedar said that injustice had been meted out to him by denying him Ministership in the Congress government. “What the party is going to achieve by giving Ministerial berths to leaders who are facing charges?” he asked.
S.R. Hiremath of the National Committee for Protection of Natural Resources (NCPNR) has alleged that both the Energy Minister (Mr. Shivakumar) and the Information Minister (Mr. Roshan Baig) were involved in illegal mining and land-grabbing. Mr. Hiremath had demanded that they both be removed from the Cabinet.
The Cabinet expansion has also disappointed senior Congress legislators A.B. Maalakaraddy, K.B. Koliwad, Basavaraj Rayareddy and C.S. Nadagouda.
They have expressed their views in public and also explained to theChief Minister how the Cabinet expansion had been wrong.
