Expand cabinet or drop inactive ministers: Legislators to CM Siddaramaiah

BENGALURU: The clamor for expansion of the cabinet dominated proceedings in the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting with more than a dozen legislators coming down heavily on “inactive” ministers here on Wednesday.

Ministerial aspirants, including former minister K.B. Koliwad, criticised ‘silent’ ministers and cornered Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on why he failed to fulfill his promise of reshuffling the ministry on completion of two years in office.

The MLAs gave vent to their ire as most district in-charge ministers failed to visit the kin of farmers who committed suicide during the last two months.

Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, a senior leader disclosed that soon after Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s opening remarks thanking legislators for their co-operation in defeating the no-confidence motion moved by Janata Dal (S) on Tuesday, some senior legislators led by former speaker K. R. Ramesh Kumar demanded axing of inactive ministers.  

The leader said these legislators even went to the extent of terming such ministers dead bodies. “Chief Minister Siddaramaiahji do not be happy thanking, it was our duty to support you at every step. It is our government and you our leader, how can we expect you be defeated on the floor of the House? However, having said this, we have to say this as well that there are almost dozen ministers in your cabinet, who are no less than dead bodies. They need to be replaced with active persons. We are not asking you to appoint X or Y in your cabinet. Take anybody into your team, but at least let them be your people, who can stand by you,” the leader quoted angry legislators as telling the Chief Minister.

Mr Koliwad reminded the Chief Minister of his promise and sought to know why he could not reshuffle the ministry. Quoting series of suicides by farmers, the leader added that had this been an active cabinet, the situation would not have gone out of the state government’s hand.

“It is the minister’s duty to identify crisis and work to defuse it. Only in the event of it going out of hand, the situation could have witnessed intervention of leaders like the Chief Minister. Unfortunately, in this government, everything needs to be tackled by Mr Siddaramaiah himself. He is over burdened with work and under acute stress. Therefore, it is in the interest of this state government that Mr Siddaramaiah should think of dropping at least a dozen ministers from his cabinet and induct fresh faces,” the leader contended.