Karnataka

Cong ministers to come under scrutiny

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Bangalore: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and several of his senior ministerial colleagues, including K J George, Ramalinga Reddy, Roshan Baig, H K Patil, R V Deshpande and Ramanath Rai, will come under scrutiny if the Congress conducts a post mortem of its poor show in the parliamentary elections in the State.

The party has managed to retain its existing tally of nine of the total 28 seats. It has lost the Mysore parliamentary seat despite the district having three representatives in the Cabinet: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Public Works Minister H C Mahadevappa and Revenue Minister V Srinivas Prasad.

Infighting

Sitting party MP A H Vishwanath lost to BJP’s Prathap Simha, a political novice. Sitting party MP from Mandya Ramya lost to C S Puttaraju of the JD(S), mainly due to differences between the cine star and Housing Minister Ambareesh and former external affairs minister S M Krishna. The two leaders aired their differences openly in the campaign and that caused more damage to the candidate’s prospects.

The party sources said three ministers from Mangalore – Forest Minister Ramanath Rai, Health Minister U T Khader and Fisheries Minister Abaychandra Jain – will also come under scrutiny for the defeat of Janardhana Poojary. Seven of the eight Assembly constituencies are represented by the Congress in the district.

The party lost all three parliamentary constituencies in Bangalore – South, Central and North – to the BJP with a huge margin. This despite five ministers – Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy, Home Minister K J George, Information Minister Roshan Baig, Food and Civil Supplies Minister Dinesh Gundu Rao and Agriculture Minister Krishna Byre Gowda being in charge of the elections in the State capital.

The party high command had handpicked Infosys co-founder Nandan Nilekani and fielded him from Bangalore South. It had given directions to the leaders in the constituency, especially the ministers, to work hard and ensure the candidate’s victory. But Ananth Kumar of the BJP won with an impressive margin of 2.28 lakh votes.

Seven of the total eight Assembly seats in Haveri are being represented by the Congress, and Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister H K Patil is from Haveri. Yet, party candidate Saleem Ahmed was defeated by the BJP’s Shivakumar Udasi.

Two Cabinet ministers – Higher Education Minister R V Deshpande and Horticulture Minister Shamanur Shivashankarappa – had fielded their sons in Uttara Kannada and Davangere, respectively. The ministers failed to ensure their victory.

However, the party has managed to defeat sitting BJP MPs in Tumkur and Chitradurga seats. Law Minister T B Jayachandra and Social Welfare Minister H Anjaneya are in-charge ministers of Tumkur and Chitradurga districts, respectively.

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