Putting rest to all speculations, a six-time MLA from Sullia Assembly constituency in Dakshina Kannada S. Angara (56) finally made it to the State Cabinet on Wednesday. Mr. Angara was upset when he was not inducted into the Cabinet the last time and had said that he and the workers were pained by the party’s decision. But he did not escalate the matter further.
Sources in the BJP said that in addition to seniority, the respect he commanded, remaining loyal to the party and his commitment to the Sangh Parivar have paid dividend now.
Though Sullia has remained a stronghold of the BJP for over 25 years now, differences of opinion have cropped up in some local units of the party in the last two years. It reflected in the grassroots level in the recent gram panchayat elections and in the cooperative society elections held earlier with candidates of the breakaway factions of the party scoring victories over the official party-backed candidates. In some instances, the candidates of the breakaway factions have made the victories of the official party-backed candidates very difficult by reducing their winning margin.
It is yet to be seen whether Mr. Angara becoming a Minister now will put an end to the internal differences and whether he will be able to take all grassroots workers of the party with him.
However, the BJP sources termed the differences as minor ones.
Mr. Angara, who had no lobbyists on behalf of him seeking his inclusion into the Cabinet, had tasted defeat when he entered politics for the first time in 1989. He had lost to K. Kushala of the Congress in the then Assembly elections. But he continued to win from the BJP in 1994, 1999, 2004, 2008, 2013 and 2018 elections. He was the lone MLA from the BJP who made it to the Assembly in the 2013 elections from Dakshina Kannada. When the BJP sat in the treasury benches in the Assembly twice earlier — for the first time in 2006 and later in 2008, Dakshina Kannada had representation in the Cabinet. The district has been given representation in the Cabinet now when the party has formed the government for the third time.
Following the 2008 Assembly elections, J. Krishna Palemar, the then two-time MLA of the BJP from Mangaluru City North (erstwhile Surathkal constituency), made it to the Cabinet as Minister for Environment and Ports in the B.S. Yediyurappa-led government and later as Minister for Ports and Science and Technology in the D.V. Sadananda Gowda-led government. Mr. Palemar, who was also the district in-charge Minister, resigned as Minister in February 2012 following a video clip controversy.
