BENGALURU: The fight for limelight between Medical Education Minister Dr K Sudhakar and Health Minister B Sriramulu over COVID-19 has continued, despite Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa’s intervention.
After his first attempt to quell the competition by making Sudhakar solely responsible for coronavirus management failed, with Sriramulu expressing displeasure, Yediyurappa divided the responsibilities between the two cabinet colleagues.
Yet, the one-upmanship continued, putting massive pressure on officials as well as the media tracking the outbreak. On Tuesday, the portfolios of the two ministers were slightly shuffled — Sudhakar was given the responsibility of all activities related to COVID-19, with Sriramulu continuing as the health minister. Following pressure from Sriramulu, the responsibilities related to COVID-19 were divided between the two ministers.
On Thursday when the state’s second COVID19-related death was reported, the two ministers were at it again. While Sudhakar insisted in the morning that test results of the patient were awaited, Sriramulu went ahead and announced that the state had a second casualty.
It was only in the evening that Sudhakar announced the second test results had confirmed the COVID 19-related death. With their one-upmanship, the critical issue of containing COVID19 is taking a backseat.