‘Resign, I’ll accept within minutes’: DK Shivakumar’s blunt warning to disgruntled Congress MLAs | Bengaluru News
BENGALURU: Karnataka chief minister D K Shivakumar on Tuesday moved to quell growing discontent within the Congress after the cabinet expansion, issuing a stern warning to disgruntled MLAs threatening to resign that their exits would be accepted within minutes.Shivakumar’s blunt message came a day after Congress MLAs Yashavantarayagouda V Patil and Belur Gopalakrishna resigned from the Karnataka Legislative Assembly after being left out of the expanded ministry.“If anyone gives resignation, within a few minutes I’m going to accept,” Shivakumar told reporters on Tuesday.The chief minister urged the disgruntled MLAs to exercise patience and stressed that the Congress was more important than individual political ambitions.“I have said whatever I have… resignations keep happening in politics. No one can stop those resigning. If they want the party and their future, the party is important. If there is party there is everything else,” he said.Shivakumar also cited his own political career to make the case for patience, saying he too had not been made a minister during the chief ministerial tenures of Dharam Singh and Siddaramaiah.“I too could have resigned as I was not made minister during the CM tenures of Dharam Singh and Siddaramaiah. Didn’t both Parameshwara (Deputy CM) and I remain patient?” he said.He also pointed to the careers of senior Congress leaders, recalling that when Veerendra Patil was chief minister, leaders such as Bangarappa, Mallikarjun Kharge and Dharam Singh were not made ministers but later went on to become chief ministers.“One needs to have patience,” Shivakumar said.The chief minister’s warning came amid signs of unease among Congress legislators following Monday’s cabinet expansion, which took the strength of the Karnataka ministry to its full limit of 34, including the chief minister.The expanded ministry includes 20 ministers, with 12 new faces and eight incumbent ministers retained. Gayathri Shanthegowda is the only woman among those inducted.The cabinet expansion, however, triggered resentment among several aspirants who were left out. Patil submitted his resignation to deputy speaker Rudrappa Lamani at Vidhana Soudha, while Gopalakrishna also announced his resignation. Patil’s supporters subsequently staged a protest in Bengaluru, alleging that the MLA had been treated unfairly.Shivakumar, meanwhile, sought to contain the fallout by assuring legislators that posts in state-run boards and corporations would be filled soon, signalling that those denied ministerial berths could still be accommodated in the government.(With agency inputs)
