BENGALURU: Ten ministers in the BS Yediyurappa government completed 100 days in office on Monday. The party high command is said to be closely monitoring the performance of rebel Congress and JDS leaders, who helped the BJP form its government in Karnataka, by joining the party and winning crucial assembly bypolls.
On February 6, nearly two months after they won, 10 rebels from the Congress-JDS alliance were sworn in as ministers in Yediyurappa’s cabinet, and portfolios were allotted four days later. The Budget session started and even before it concluded, the lockdown was imposed due to the coronavirus outbreak, posing a challenge to the ministers to perform.
Highly-placed sources said the party high command and CM Yediyurappa are closely watching the performance of the new ministers. “In fact, the new team of ministers is doing better than the batch which took oath last year. Some of the new ministers are holding plum portfolios like Agriculture, Labour, Medical Education, Horticulture, and have a crucial role to play in the pandemic. Most of them are travelling across the State and working, and the CM is aware of it. The message has been conveyed to leaders in Delhi,’’ sources said.
There is pressure on the new ministers to perform, as any mistake could embarrass the CM himself.
“Yediyurappa braved opposition from his party leaders, and many ministerial aspirants were disappointed. They will naturally keep a critical eye on the new ministers’ performance,’’ said a senior BJP leader.
Food and Civil Supplies Minister Gopalaiah said this was a challenging period for everyone. “Apart from BPL and APL cardholders, there are lakhs of people who don’t have any cards. Starting Tuesday, we are supplying 5kg rice per person to 40.20 lakh people, including migrants who don’t have cards. We have sufficient grains,’’ he said.
Agriculture Minister BC Patil, who travelled to all 30 districts during the lockdown, said this was crucial. “It’s the harvest season and also pre-monsoon period, when work needs to be done on farms. Unlike other industries, we cannot tell farmers to stay home, and have to ensure their health too. We set up agri war rooms to supply seeds and also cracked down on fake seed rackets. We seized 11,000 quintals of fake seeds,’’ he said.
However, political analyst Prof Harish Ramaswamy differed, saying the Covid situation has overshadowed performance. “In this situation, it is important for ministers to be visible in terms of performance, and not many succeeded. The policy output is largely by the Centre, with the State as the implementing authority. Most important is these ministers’ collective contribution to the government, which is again disappointing. It is largely managed by the bureaucracy. None of these new ministers could put their vision in practice. This was the time to grow in their political career and individually, but they failed to take it as a challenge,’’ Ramaswamy said.