Home, a key portfolio in the State, has become the most rotating one among the Congress Ministers. With the last week’s reshuffle of portfolios among Congress Ministers, the State got the fourth Home Minister in four years.
The Congress rotated the Home portfolio among K.J. George, G. Parameshwara, Ramalinga Reddy, and M.B. Patil during the last four years in governments headed by Siddaramaiah and H.D. Kumaraswamy.
After a string of controversies, Mr. George was replaced by the then State Congress president Mr. Parameshwara on October 30, 2015. Mr. George held the portfolio for the longest period (29 months), followed by Mr. Parameshwara (20 months), and Mr. Reddy (nine months). After a long wait, Mr. Parameshwara was inducted into the Cabinet by the then Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and was allocated the Home portfolio. However, he resigned from the post following the Congress leadership’s decision to continue him as the party’s State unit chief ahead of the 2018 Assembly polls.
After Mr. Parameshwara’s exit from the government, Mr. Siddaramaiah himself held the portfolio for a brief period of two months. On September 2, 2017, he allocated the portfolio to Mr. Reddy, who held the post till the formation of the new government headed by Mr. Kumaraswamy.
Mr. Parameshwara, who headed the State Congress during the elections, was elevated to the Deputy Chief Minister’s post in the JD(S)-Congress government and was given the Home portfolio, besides Bengaluru Development Authority and Youth Empowerment and Sports.
The significance of the portfolio came under sharp focus when Mr. Parameshwara showed unwillingness to spare it to Mr. Patil, senior Congress leader from north Karnataka. Mr. Parameshwara’s contention was that sparing the key portfolio would “diminish the weight” of the Deputy Chief Minister rank.
Mr. Patil’s first official assignment after assuming charge of the Home Department was paying tribute to IPS officer the late Madhukar Shetty. As a matter of coincidence, BJP veteran L.K. Advani’s first official assignment after becoming Union Home Minister in the A.B. Vajpayee government was attending the funeral of communist leader E.M.S. Namboodiripad on March 19, 1998.
