BENGALURU: A delegation of 40 senior Congress MLAs called on Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Tuesday and appealed that they be made ministers.
MLAs from the Shivakumar camp, including Magadi MLA HC Balakrishna and Shantinagar MLA NA Haris, who is also the BDA chairman, were part of the delegation that met the CM at his office in Vidhana Soudha.
Chief Whip Ashok Pattan, AR Krishnamurthy, MY Patil, and DG Shanthanagouda were the other legislators present.
According to informed sources, the delegation complained to the CM that many of the current ministers were lethargic in their duties and should be dropped from the cabinet.
According to the sources, the CM promised them that he would discuss the issue with the party high command. Meanwhile, the delegation plans to fly to Delhi on March 26 evening and meet the high command leaders collectively. The CM is also likely to visit the national capital at the same time, sources added.
Dinner meets
A group of 40 first-time Congress MLAs, most of them identified with the Shivakumar camp, met over dinner at a private hotel in Bengaluru on Tuesday. They include Ganiga Ravi, Nayana Motamma, and Iqbal Hussain. They had recently written to the high command demanding that five of them be made ministers.
Meanwhile, CM Siddaramaiah, who hosted dinner for 15 of his cabinet colleagues on Monday, met the remaining 16 ministers at his residence ‘Cauvery’ over dinner on Tuesday.