Mutiny within Congress in Karnataka after cabinet reshuffle

Bengaluru: The Congress party’s Karnataka unit is facing a mutiny of sorts within its ranks after chief minister Siddaramaiah sacked 14 out of 34 ministers in a major revamp on Sunday.

Angry supporters of Congress leaders like V. Srinivasa Prasad, M. H. Ambareesh and M. Krishnappa, who were either sacked or missed out on induction into cabinet, took to the streets on Monday. Congress workers blockading National Highway 212 between Bengaluru and Mysuru for the last two days burned effigies of Siddaramaiah and Congress leader in the Lok Sabha, Mallikarjuna M. Kharge, on Monday, regional news channels reported.

Adding to the party’s woes, Kannada actor-turned-politician Ambareesh handed his resignation through an office aide as a legislator to deputy speaker Shivashankara Reddy on Monday. The office of the deputy speaker said the resignation had not been accepted so far. The Karnataka Film Chambers said in a statement that it will be organising a cinema ‘bandh’ (shutdown) in protest against the “unceremonious sacking” of Ambareesh as minister for housing.

Another sacked minister and a Dalit face of the party, Srinivasa Prasad, launched a no-holds-barred attack against Siddaramaiah before the media in Mysuru district on Sunday. Calling the chief minister a betrayer, Prasad said he will not contest election again, The New Indian Express newspaper reported on Monday reported.

There’s a lot at stake for the Congress in Karnataka. Apart from being the only state in south India where the Congress is in power, Karnataka is also the largest of the six states that the party currently rules, independently or with alliance partners.

The cabinet reshuffle was carried out to accommodate “more dynamic members” into the ministry, eject some non-performing and controversial ministers, and to also put the party on a sound footing two years before the assembly elections in May 2018, Congress leaders said to PTI on Sunday.

The reshuffle, or at least its scale, was opposed by other senior Karnataka Congress leaders such as Kharge, but Siddaramaiah stuck to his stand of going for “a major surgery”, Mint reported on Sunday.

Siddaramaiah was not immediately available for comment. On Sunday, he had categorically denied any differences within the party. “There is no dissidence within the party,” he insisted.

Meanwhile, the party appointed Dinesh Gundu Rao, one of the sacked ministers, as the new working president for the state. The move belied expectations that energy minister D.K. Shiva Kumar would become the party chief in Karnataka.