BSY doesn't have freedom, says Siddaramaiah

Bengaluru: Senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah on Saturday claimed that the recent cabinet expansion was “imbalanced” as there was no representation to 13 districts in it.

The discontentment among a section of BJP MLAs would “aggravate” due to this, he said.

Siddaramaiah also slammed Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa for displaying “inefficiency” by depending on the party high command for every decision.

The former chief minister’s remarks comes two days after Yediyurappa had rewarded with Cabinet berth 10 defectors, who helped the BJP bring down the Congress-JD(S) coalition and come to power.

“There is imbalance in the cabinet. There is no representation to 13 districts. It is (representation to all the districts in the cabinet) essential for the social justice.

This imbalance will aggravate the discontentment,” Siddaramaiah told reporters at Kalaburagi.

He was reacting to a query on the lack of representation from Kalaburagi in the cabinet.

Hitting out at the Chief Minister, Siddaramiah said, “He (Yediyurappa) does not have independence. He cannot even assign portfolios on his own… He is showing his inefficiency.”

The six-month-old BJP government led by Yediyurappa carried out its second expansion on Thursday.

The first expansion had taken place on August 20, 2019.

In terms of representation to the districts, there are seven ministers from Bengaluru, followed by four from Belagavi.

There is two ministers each from Bagalkot and Shivamogga including Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa; one minister each from Chitradurga, Chikkaballapura, Uttara Kannada, Haveri, Mandya, Bagalkot, Hubballi-Dharwad, Ballari, Udupi, Tumakuru, Kolar and Bidar.