MLA Ambareesh resigns after Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah's Cabinet reshuffle

Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s big Cabinet reshuffle met with protests and sporadic incidents of violence on Sunday. According to the latest CNN-News 18 report, Cine-actor turned politician MH Ambareesh resigned after the Cabinet rejig. The chief minister, after getting the Congress high command’s approval, sacked 14 ministers and inducted 13 members into his Council of Ministers in a bid to give a facelift to his three-year-old government. The 14 ministers were sacked on grounds of non-performance or getting involved in controversies. The axed ministers, along with their supporters, voiced their discontent and took to the streets. The ministers who were sacked: Qamarul Islam, Shamanoor Shivashankarappa, V Srinivasa Prasad, MH Ambareesh, Vinay Kumar Sorake, Satish Jarkiholi, Baburao Chinchansur, Shivaraj Sangappa Tangadagi, S R Patil, Manohar Tahasildhar, K Abayachandra Jain, Dinesh Gundu Rao, Kimmane Ratnakar and P T Parameshwar Naik. [caption id=“attachment_2841960” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. File photo. PTI[/caption] Naik had landed in trouble recently after Deputy Superintendent of Police of Kudligi in Ballari district Anupama Shenoy had resigned from her post upset over his alleged interference in her work, embarrassing the government. Cine-actor turned politician Ambareesh’s supporters blocked the Bengaluru-Mysuru Highway in Mandya district, while Islam’s followers went on a rampage at Kalaburgi, pelting stones and blocking road. A bus was also set on fire near Saradagi in Kalaburgi district during a protest allegedly by supporters of Mallikayya Guttedar, after he was denied a ministerial berth. According to The Hindu, supporters of Vijayanagar (Bengaluru) MLA, M Krishnappa, who was expecting a berth, took to pelting stones and blocked roads causing traffic disruption. The report added that MLA Rajashekar Patil’s loyalists called for a bandh in Humnabad in Bidar district. Vehicles and government vehicles were damaged in Gauribidanur by Deputy Speaker Shivashankara Reddy’s supporters, who was expecting a place in the ministry. With the reshuffle, the ministry has a strength of 33, one less than the upper constitutional limit. The swearing-in ceremony took place, a day after Congress president Sonia Gandhi and her deputy Rahul Gandhi gave their nod to Siddaramaiah who was under pressure to rejuvenate the administration with Assembly polls two years away. Karnataka is presently the only large state where the Congress party is in power. Nine cabinet rank ministers and four ministers of state were sworn in. Tanveer Sait, Kagodu Thimmappa, Ramesh Kumar, Basavaraj Raya Reddy, HY Meti, SS Mallikarjun, MR Seetharam, Santosh Lad and Ramesh Jarkiholi were inducted as Cabinet rank ministers by the Governor at a ceremony at Raj Bhavan. Priyank Kharge, Rudrappa Lamani, Eshwar Khandre and Pramod Madhwaraj were sworn in as Ministers of State. Thimmappa and Ramesh Kumar are former Assembly Speakers, while Kharge is the son of Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge. In the reshuffle, Siddaramaiah has tried to balance caste and region factors and blend experience and young blood. For example: Satish Jharkhiholi, who was the Excise and Small-Scale Industries Minister, was dropped and his brother Ramesh Jharkhiholi was inducted, reported The Indian Express. The report added that the leader of the Scheduled Tribe Lamani community Chinchansur’s exit was balanced by inclusion of Rudrappa Lamani, a youth leader. Islam was replaced by young Tanveer Sait, son of former Congress leader Aziz Sait. Several Congress MLAs from Bengaluru were also unhappy for being excluded from the ministry. ST Somashekar claimed that eight legislators were contemplating resigning their Assembly membership in protest. “We will resign 100 percent,” he said, questioning a “first timer like Kharge” being made a minister while neglecting their claims. Despite widespread discontent, Siddaramaiah maintained that there was no dissent among party members. “No dissidence in the party. Totally, there is no dissidence in the party,” he told reporters after the swearing-in ceremony. Facing an aggressive BJP, the exercise is coming in order to put the party on a sound footing two years before the Assembly elections in Karnataka, the only major state where the Congress is ruling after being ejected out of power in Kerala and Assam in the recent polls. With inputs from PTI