CM Siddaramaiah irate at friends' Dalit CM call
Upset with his cabinet colleagues, Chief Minister refuses to join issue
MYSURU: A visibly upset Chief Minister Siddaramaiah refused to join issue with some of his cabinet colleagues who have are in favour of a Dalit heading the state government.
Recently, revenue minister V. Sreenivas Prasad, who also from Mr. Siddaramaiah’s home district, Mysuru, and prominent Dalit leader, was quoted as saying that a person from Dalit community deserves to become the Chief Minister, and that it could happen only in the Congress.
Infrastructure minister R Roshan Baig, too, batted for a Dalit occupying the top coveted post, followed by another Dalit leader and social welfare minister H. Anjaneya.
On Saturday, when media persons asked him to react on the growing demand within his cabinet, Mr. Siddaramaiah walked away in a huff saying: “Why are you asking me? Go and ask people who are making these statements”.
Though he and KPCC chief Dr G. Parameshwar, a Dalit, were in the race for the Chief Minister’s post before the Assembly polls in 2013, Mr. Siddaramaiah was elected to the top post after the state unit leader lost the election.
Dr Parameshwar has been nursing ambitions of joining the 19 month-old ministry as deputy chief minister but has not secured the go-ahead from central leaders of the party so far.
Mr. Siddaramaiah also declined to admit that Bhatkal town was fast becoming a terror hub. Just because few persons from Bhatkal had indulged in terror activities, so it would be inappropriate to generalise and view all people of Bhatkal with suspicion, he added.