Cong MLCs complain to DKS, claim neglect

NT Correspondent

Bengaluru: Congress MLCs have expressed their dissatisfaction with their place in the party and the State government before Deputy Chief Minister and Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president DK Shivakumar.

The issues were said to have been raised with Shivakumar during a closed door dinner meeting on Thursday.

They raised a few issues with the Deputy CM, starting with scarcity of funds being released to their constituencies, adding that grants upwards of Rs 25 crore be made available to them since this was the case with MLAs.

The Council members were also unhappy with being left out of the Cabinet.

The only MLC who is a part of CM Siddaramaiah’s Cabinet is Minister for Science and Technology NS Boseraju, who had been named as a minister first and then nominated to the Council.

Both Naseer Ahmed and K Govindaraju are political secretaries to the CM and are MLCs. The MLCs were also dismayed by their exclusion from the first list of chairpersons of Boards and Corporations, which only named 34 MLAs.

They have demanded that they be included in future lists. Some legislators have also thrown their hats into the ring as far as candidacy for the Lok Sabha elections is concerned.

They expressed alarm about sons and daughters of ministers getting tickets, regarding them as undeserving.

The daughter of Public Works Minister Satish Jarkiholi Priyanka and Minister for Social Welfare HC Mahadevappa’s son Sunil Bose are being rumoured for Congress tickets.