JD(S) leaders AH Vishwananth, Basavaraj Horatti and Congress leader K Sudhakar have openly expressed their anger against their parties for denying them ministerial post and inducting two independents instead
Bengaluru: Two independent MLAs took oath of ministry in the Karnataka coalition government in Bengaluru on June 14. But many top leaders from the Congress-JD(S) coalition gave the important event a miss, hinting at growing dissent.
The government had three vacancies, but decided to fill in only two seats keeping one ministry pending.
Two independent candidates H Nagesh and R Shankar were sworn in by Governor Vajubhai Vala on June 14 at 1 pm at Rashtrapathi Bhavan.
But absence of prominent leaders was seen during the oath-taking ceremony. JD(S) former president, AH Vishwanath, who had recently resigned from the post taking responsibility for the failure of the party in the recently-held Lok Sabha election, was not seen in the event. Instead of attending the event, Vishwanath reportedly met BJP leader V Srinivasprasad.
Reacting to this, party leaders said that Vishwananth had gone to meet his friend. So there was nothing odd about it.
JD(S) leaders have said that the swearing-in ceremony was arranged in a hurry after it was postponed due to the death of Jnanpith awardee Girish Karnad. Thus everyone was not informed to attend the event, JD(S) leaders said.
Congress MLA Dr K Sudhakar expressed his anger openly and said that he was not happy with the government inducting two independent MLAs into the Cabinet, when there were MLAs waiting for the ministry in the party.
He also said that he was promised a Cabinet berth by AICC president Rahul Gandhi. Another leader to express his anger against the Cabinet expansion is JD(S) leader Basavaraj Horatti. He also said that he was expecting to join the ministry, but was not given a chance by the party again.
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