Karnataka Minister Resigns Over Portfolio Dispute

The newly formed Cabinet of Karnataka Chief Minister D K Shivakumar faced discontent Friday with Ramalinga Reddy, an eight-time Congress MLA from Bengaluru, resigning as a minister after being denied the Bengaluru development portfolio, which has been given to a younger party MLA Krishna Byre Gowda. There were speculations since Thursday – a day after the new CM and his 13-member Cabinet were sworn in – that Reddy, 72, was unhappy over his portfolio. On Friday morning, he announced that he had sent his resignation to Shivakumar after being named the Water Resources and Irrigation Minister. “I am upset (over the portfolio). I cannot work against my conscience and have given my resignation. I will remain in the Congress and will remain an MLA,” he announced. The resignation drama has unfolded on a day when Congress president, Mallikarjun Kharge, and Leader of the Opposition (LoP) in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi are in Bengaluru for the filing of Kharge’s nomination for the upcoming Rajya Sabha election. Shivakumar said he would “sort it out” and added that “discipline is important”. “He (Reddy) is not from a rural area. He has been given the portfolio of irrigation. He feels that he should work for the welfare of the urban sector. I will speak to him. He is a great friend and an important leader. I will sort it out. Discipline is important,” the CM said. The drama is seen as a part of the continuing tussle between the two rival camps in the Congress, led by Shivakumar and his predecessor Siddaramaiah , over control of the government. This is the second time Reddy has been unhappy with his portfolio. He had expressed a similar desire to quit the Cabinet in 2023, soon after the Congress came to power with Siddaramaiah as the CM. Reddy was initially promised the Bengaluru city portfolio but was later given the Transport and Muzrai ministry. At the time, then Deputy CM and state Congress chief Shivakumar convinced Reddy that he would be given the Bengaluru portfolio when the former becomes the CM. To mollify Reddy then, Shivakumar also appointed him as the in-charge minister for the Bengaluru South (Ramanagara) district. Shivakumar was then the Bengaluru development minister. “I have been in politics since 1973 as a student leader in the Government Science College. I have been in Congress for 53 years. The party has given me a lot of positions. I have not asked anyone to make me a minister or to give me a portfolio over the years that I have been in politics. They have done it on their own,” Reddy told the media Friday. “In 2023, when Siddaramaiah became the Chief Minister, I did not ask to be made a minister. He called me and told me of my appointment. I was told that I would be given the Bangalore portfolio by Byrathi Suresh (an MLA and close associate of Siddaramaiah). When the portfolios were announced, I was entrusted with the transport ministry,” he added. “I inquired why this had happened. They told me it had been changed for various reasons. Later, I said that I would not like to be in the Cabinet. However, the current Chief Minister Shivakumar and his brother D K Suresh came to my house and said that after two and a half years, when Shivakumar becomes the Chief Minister, the portfolio would be handed over to me,” he said. Recently, Shivakumar repeated his assurance, Reddy claimed. “I had not asked for the Bengaluru ministry but was voluntarily offered and now they have given me the irrigation portfolio and have given Bengaluru development to someone else,” he said. The Bengaluru development portfolio is considered influential and lucrative owing to the huge funds available for the capital’s development. A powerful politician-contractor lobby controls the city’s affairs, and several long-term Bengaluru MLAs have entrenched interests in the city’s contracts, ranging from garbage disposal to the asphalting of roads. When Shivakumar was the minister in charge of Bengaluru development from 2023 to 2026, a Rs 40,000-crore solid waste management contract, spread over 30 years, was finalised. This drew criticism from the Opposition leaders, including the BJP’s Union minister Shobha Karandlaje. The politician-contractor nexus in Bengaluru is considered a key factor in the city’s poll outcomes. With the newly created Greater Bengaluru Authority set to hold polls for the city councils in the next two years, after a lapse of over five years, city satraps like Reddy are considered key to the Congress’s prospects in several areas. Another veteran Congress leader, K H Muniyappa, who is a seven-term MP and two-time MLA, has also expressed disgruntlement about being given the Food and Civil Supplies portfolio for a second successive time. “I am not inclined to take up the Food and Civil Supplies portfolio. As a senior leader I should be given the unallocated Social Welfare or Agriculture portfolio,” Muniyappa, 78, said. He has however not expressed any intent to stay out of the Shivakumar Cabinet, also participating in government meetings Friday. Muniyappa was asked by the Congress leadership to also consider his daughter Roopakala Shashidhar, 46, for a Cabinet berth but he chose himself to be a part of the Shivakumar ministry. The Congress dispensation has named Bengaluru MLA and former revenue minister Krishna Byre Gowda, 54, as the new Bengaluru development minister. As an emerging leader, he is considered a “threat” to entrenched Congress players. “The onus of developing Bengaluru lies not only with the government but also with the people in the city,” Byre Gowda said, refusing to be drawn into the controversy over Reddy’s demand for the Bengaluru portfolio. Byre Gowda, who brought many changes to the revenue ministry through the use of technology, is considered close to the Congress high command. He is expected to bring fresh thinking to resolve Bengaluru’s infrastructure problems. He is even viewed as a potential future CM face, though he lacks a mass base. While Reddy is an MLA from the BTM Layout constituency in south Bengaluru, Byre Gowda is a legislator from the Byatarayanapura seat in north Bengaluru. The Congress is now expected to mollify Reddy, as it did in 2023. In fact, in 2023, there was also a buzz that Priyank Kharge and Industries Minister M B Patil were at loggerheads over the IT and Biotechnology ministry. The then CM Siddaramaiah initially held the IT ministry to defuse the controversy and later handed it to Priyank. On Thursday night, the Shivakumar government announced portfolios for 14 new ministers. Shivakumar now holds Finance, Cabinet Affairs, Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms, Intelligence, and other unallocated portfolios. Deputy CM G Parameshwara is in charge of Revenue, Youth Empowerment and Sports. Priyank Kharge has been given the Home portfolio, who has also retained his Information Technology/Biotechnology portfolio. The Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Department, which was under Kharge during Siddaramaiah’s tenure, will now be handled by Eshwar Khandre, the ex-forest minister. M B Patil has retained the Industries and Infrastructure Development portfolio, K J George the Energy ministry, Satish Jarkiholi the Public Works Department, and Sharan Prakash Patil the Medical Education and Skill Development portfolio. Other ministers include U T Khader and Byrati Suresh, who have been allotted, respectively, the Health and Family Welfare portfolio and the Transport ministry. Yathindra Siddaramaiah, son of Siddaramaiah, is now the Urban Development Minister for urban areas outside Bengaluru.