Vokkaliga leaders at loggerheads over Cabinet berth

 Chief Minister Siddaramaiah was on Sunday forced to keep one ministerial berth vacant due to infighting among the Vokkaliga leaders in the ruling Congress.

M Krishnappa (Vijayanagar, Bangalore city), Dr K Sudhakar (Chikkaballapur), C P Yogeshwara (Channapatna), S T Somashekar (Yeshwanthpur), N H Shivashankar Reddy (Gauribidanur) are among the prominent Vokkaliga MLAs lobbying to become ministers. Of the 33 berths in the council of ministers, currently there are four Vokkaligas. Two leaders from the community – M H Ambareesh and Kimmane Ratnakar – were dropped from the ministry on Sunday.

Somashekar said that a meeting of eight legislators who have been denied cabinet berths would hold a meeting soon.

Highest representation has been given to the Lingayat community (eight) followed by SCs/STs (six) and three Muslims. Vokkaliga leaders had been complaining that the Siddaramaiah government has not given adequate representation to the community.

Sources in the party said Energy Minister D K Shivakumar has been lobbying to make Yogeshwara a minister.  Yogeshwara’s support is key for Shivakumar to maintain his dominance over Ramanagar and Bengaluru Rural districts. Shivakumar even made last-minute efforts to convince Siddaramaiah to induct Yogeshwara. But the Chief Minister deferred a decision as he was under immense pressure from other Vokkalinga leaders. Krishnappa’s supporters held Shivakumar responsible for scuttling his chance to make it to the Cabinet. 

Ramya to ministry?

Supporters of actor-politician Ambareesh resorted to violent protest in Mandya district, demanding that he should be re-inducted. Various sections of Kannada filmdom are also extending their support to Ambareesh and have decided to stage a protest on Monday. Name of former MP and actor Ramya is making the rounds as the Ambareesh’s replacement. He is yet to react to the losing of ministership.

The sources said Siddaramaiah had almost finalised Krishnappa’s name on Saturday but later dropped it due to pressure from other Vokkaliga MLAs. Former union minister Veerappa Moily, who met Siddaramaiah on Sunday, is said have bated for Shivashankar Reddy.

After completing the reshuffle exercise, Siddaramaiah is facing the challenge of pacifying the disgruntled legislators. Of the 14 out-going ministers, 12 of them kept themselves away from the swearing-in ceremony.  The out-going ministers were so upset that they even refused to submit their resignation letters to the chief minister, forcing Siddamaramaiah to drop them.

Normally, the out-going ministers submit the resignation letters to the chief minister, who, inturn, recommends to the Governor to accept them. But Siddaramaiah, on Sunday recommended to Governor Vajubhai Vala to drop the 14 ministers. Besides, only a handful of Congress legislators were present at the swearing-in ceremony.

Caste break-up in the ministry

Lingayat     8
SCs/STs      6
Vokkaliga    4
Muslim        3
Kuruba       2
Brahmin     2
Ediga         1
Bunt          1
Balija         1
Maratha     1
Nekara      1
Gangamatasta     1
Reddy      1
Christian  1