The Bharatiya Janata Party has ridiculed Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s claims that “tainted” leaders have been kept out of his ministry by pointing out that two of his ministerial colleagues are facing serious charges.
Speaking to presspersons here on Monday, BJP State unit president Pralhad Joshi alleged that Baburao Chinchansur and Qamar-ul Islam had been included in the ministry despite facing serious charges.
He pointed out that a serious case was on in the court against Mr. Chinchansur while Mr. Islam’s name was prominent among those who had been accused of misappropriating Wakfs’ wealth. This had showed that the Chief Minister had played the “tainted” card only to keep out his party colleague D.K. Shivakumar from the Ministry, Mr. Joshi alleged.
Mr. Joshi expressed concern that representation and importance to north Karnataka, especially Hyderabad Karnataka, had been ignored in the composition of the ministry as well as distribution of portfolios. Water Resources was the only key portfolio that had been allocated to north Karnataka leaders, he said.
Similarly, the Hyderabad Karnataka region had only four Ministers and none of them had been given any prominent portfolio, he said.
On the other hand, Mr. Siddaramaiah was trying to establish his supremacy over the government by allocating plum portfolios to his supporters, he alleged. The composition of the ministry and allocation of portfolios had clearly indicated the trend in which the original Congress leaders had lost out to those who migrated to the Congress from other parties, he said.
Though the Congress came to power by facing the elections on collective leadership, Mr. Siddaramaiah had given a go-by to the concept of collective leadership after becoming Chief Minister, he alleged. This was evident in the hurried manner in which Mr. Siddaramaiah announced the welfare schemes soon after taking oath as Chief Minister instead of waiting for other leaders to join him, he said.
Mr. Joshi sought to debunk the claims of ensuring social justice in the composition of the ministry by alleging that the emphasis was more on accommodating his own supporters from the AHINDA (Kannada acronym for minorities, backward classes and Dalits) group rather than commitment to ideology.
He alleged that none of the Dalit leaders from the original Congress rank had made it to the ministry while KPCC president G. Parameshwara had been ignored.
Taking exception to the protests by disappointed ministerial aspirants putting general public into inconvenience, Mr. Joshi urged the Chief Minister to put an end to this trend.
