Ramalinga Reddy cries foul over denial of K'taka cabinet berth

Senior Congress leader and former minister Ramalinga Reddy cried foul over being denied a ministerial berth in the state cabinet while questioning the decision of removing him as a minister.

"Juniors should become ministers, but four-five (of those) who became ministers earlier they are still in the cabinet including RV Deshpande, DK Shivakumar, G Parameshwara and others. My question is, you kept all these people who are capable and seniors but removed me. I'm asking, why?" the seven-time MLA told ANI.

On Sunday, Congress' Ramesh Jarkiholi had reportedly threatened to quit the party after he was dropped from the HD Kumaraswamy cabinet. An audio clip had surfaced where Jarkiholi purportedly said he and others would resign and people would get to see the changes within a week.

However, Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara ruled out the possibility of Jarkiholi resigning from the party.

"Whatever is appearing in media is different from reality. I have already spoken to Ramesh Jarkiholi, he is not resigning. Issues are being differently put in TV channels and reality is different, so I request media not to manipulate these issues," Parameshwara said in Tumkur.

Reacting on Reddy being denied a ministerial berth in the state cabinet, the Deputy Chief Minister said that the decision was solely taken by the high command.

"Me and Krishna Byre Gowda were not the reason for Ramalinga Reddy not being included in the cabinet. We were not even considered. The decision was taken by the high command," Parameshwara clarified.

Reddy had reportedly claimed that there were four people who took the decision of dropping him, including Parameshwara.

On Saturday, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president Dinesh Gundu Rao recommended six names for cabinet posts and announced the removal of two ministers, Ramesh Jarkiholi and R Shankar.

"We are filling six remaining cabinet posts and replacing two ministers. Ramesh Jarkiholi and R Shankar have been removed," Rao said while addressing the media here.

The KPCC president said that the two ministers have been removed as they were unable to fulfill their duties. "It is basically done on the basis of their performance. Again after one year, we will be doing an overall evaluation of all the ministers. We cannot have ministers who are not performing," Rao added.

In a letter addressed to the Chief Minister, KPCC president had recommended a total of 12 names for the post of Parliamentary Secretaries, Deputy Chairman Planning Commission, Special Representative in New Delhi and Political Secretary to the Chief Minister.

Names of MLC A. Abdul Jabbar, MLA Anjali Nibalkar, MLC Ivan D' Souza, MLA Manthesh S. Koujalagi, MLA Roopa Shashidhar, MLC K. Govindaraj, MLA Raghavendra K. Hintal, MLC MA Gopalaswamy and MLA Durgappa Hulageri were recommended for the post of parliamentary secretaries, while MLA Sharnabasappa Darshanapur, MLA Dr. Ajay Singh and MLA V.Muniyappa were recommended for the post of Deputy Chairman Planning Commission, Special Representative in New Delhi and Political Secretary to the Chief Minister, respectively.