30 unhappy Congress MLAs force CLP meet on July 27

BENGALURU: As many as 30 MLAs of the ruling Congress party have reportedly written a letter to the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah expressing displeasure over the attitude of some ministers, who are allegedly not responding positively to their pleas and not helping them in getting their work done.

Senior MLAs of the party such as B.R. Patil and Basavaraja Rayareddy — backed by party MLAs M. Krishnappa, Priya Krishna, Vijayanand Kashappanavar, Narendera Swamy among others — have dashed off a letter asking for holding Congress Legislature Party meeting immediately.

To address the problems of MLAs, if any, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said the MLAs had asked for the CLP meet. Though a meeting has been convened, he denied that MLAs have lodged a complaint against the ministers. “We will lend a patient hearing to the MLAs,” he said.

The meeting is said to have been convened on the direction of president of All India Congress Committee (AICC) Mallikarjuna Kharge. CLP secretary and MLA E. Tukaram intimated the MLAs about the CLP meeting.

It is said that some MLAs were keen on transfer of officials concerned in their Assembly seats and their demands have not been conceded yet leading to displeasure among the MLAs.

Regarding the CLP meeting, Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar on Tuesday stated that some of the ruling party MLAs have put forth demand for initiating works in their constituencies and they were asked to put on hold the demands for the year since the state government had to fulfill five-guarantees assured to the voters before coming to power in Karnataka.