Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is struggling to quell a rebellion in the party's state unit a day after he dropped 14 of his ministers and inducted 13 new ones.
Kannada film star Ambareesh, who lost his Cabinet berth, has resigned as MLA. Angry followers of Ambareesh, and other senior ministers like V Srininivasa Prasad, Quamarulla Islam and Baburao Chinchansur, who had to make way for the new faces, hit the streets in Gulbarga, Mandya, Mysore and Bengaluru for the second day on Monday shouting slogans and damaging public property.
Supporters of Vijayanagara MLA M Krishnappa, who missed out at the last minute, even entered a Metro station in Bengaluru and damaged the sign boards.
The Karnataka Film Chambers has called for a cinema bandh in protest against sacking of Kannada film star Ambareesh who was Housing Minister in Siddaramaiah government. His fans went on a rampage across Mandya district protesting his “unceremonious" removal.
Congress veteran V Srinivasa Prasad, who quit as Revenue minister, launched an all-out attack on Siddaramaiah calling him a traitor.
“The Cabinet reshuffle will cost Siddaramaiah dearly. What he has done is betrayal. He himself is an outsider. He has ruined Congress," he told News18
Supporters of Ambareesh and Srinivasa Prasad said both of them may even defect to JDS to take revenge on Siddaramaiah and the Congress.
Commenting on the cinema bandh, Power Minister DK Shivakumar said, “Congress made Ambareesh a minister. Not the Film Chambers. Who are they to protest? This kind of blackmailing won't work"
Gulbarga district in Hyderabad-Karnataka region is also witnessing a widespread agitation over sacking of two ministers Quamarullah Islam and Baburao Chinchansur.
By dropping these two senior ministers Siddaramaiah has inducted Priyank Kharge, a first-time MLA and son of top Congress leader M Mallikarjuna Kharge, as a minister of state. This has rankled many Congress workers across Kharge’s fiefdom Gulbarga who accuse him of promoting his son at the expense of other party leaders.
“Kharge has betrayed us. He has made his son a minister. We have been his supporters for over 40 years. The Congress party will see bad days in future," veteran MLA and former minister Dr. AB Malakareddy told News18.
Reacting to this Priyank Kharge said, “it is natural for people to be perturbed when things don’t go their way. But, such violent protests are not a part of Congress culture".
Besides these developments, more than 10 ministerial hopefuls are also planning to quit their MLA posts after failing to make it to the Cabinet.
Siddaramaiah who came to power in May 2013 has reshuffled his Cabinet for the first time in three years. In the 224-member assembly, the ruling Congress has 123 MLAs. He can have 34 ministers. After the reshuffle, just one Cabinet berth is vacant.
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