BENGALURU: As the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government completes one year in office on Monday, it has big challenges ahead to tackle, especially stopping alleged corruption in the government and lack of coordination between ministers and party MLAs.
Though a milestone, the government is not celebrating the anniversary in a big manner as the Model Code of Conduct for the Lok Sabha elections is still in force. The plan is to hold the celebrations after the general election results on June 4.
But old issues may surface again to haunt the government and it is interesting to see how the CM will tackle them, said political analysts.
A couple of months before the Lok Sabha polls, former minister H Anjaneya had alleged that Siddaramaiah’s present government is not as effective as his first tenure between 2013 and 2018 as he has no free hand.
Congress came to power winning 136 seats in the May 10, 2023 Assembly elections, riding on the allegation by the contractors’ association that the then BJP government was demanding 40 per cent commission from contractors.
But Contractors’ Association president D Kempanna attacked the Congress government too, saying corruption had continued and blamed officials for working under orders of politicians. The government managed to assuage the contractors by releasing some of their dues, but large amounts are still pending.
Besides, the tiff between Health and Family Welfare Minister Dinesh Gundurao and Beelagi MLA JT Patil exposed the alleged corruption in transfer of officials. Patil filed a complaint with Speaker UT Khader against Dinesh’s personal secretary KA Hidayatullah. The latter, in turn, filed a police complaint, alleging that the MLA’s personal assistant Beelagi Prakash was resorting to blackmail tactics and corruption in transfers.
Later, Aland MLA BR Patil and Revenue Minister Krishna Byre Gowda locked horns over development works and allegations of taking cuts. Siddaramaiah defused the situation by making Patil his adviser with a cabinet rank.
In the meantime, JDS, especially its state president HD Kumaraswamy, alleged that Siddaramaiah’s son Dr Yathindra was interfering in the transfer of officials. Despite these allegations, the government is upbeat and has successfully implemented all the five guarantees it promised before the Assembly elections, without going bankrupt. But the state government’s dire financial condition was exposed when Siddaramaiah told party MLAs that the funds would be released for development works only after the Lok Sabha elections.
The biggest challenge for both Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivkumar would be to prevent opposition parties from taking advantage of the alleged rift between them. Leader of Opposition R Ashoka and Kumaraswamy have said the government would fall after the Lok Sabha elections.
The government may have to fend off the demand for cabinet expansion and appointing three more deputy chief ministers, which was raised a few months ago. Ministers Dr G Parameshwara, Satish Jarkiholi, KH Muniyappa and Dr HC Mahadevappa have held parleys allegedly to discuss these issues. “If the BJP-led NDA government comes to power at the Centre, the Congress government may find it difficult to keep its flock of MLAs together as issues like cabinet berths and funds for their constituencies would crop up,” a political observer said.
“The Congress government in Karnataka led by Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar completes a year in office on May 20. It has worked tirelessly in a short span of time and won the praise of innumerable people. The Congress government has spread the ideology of equality and equity while working impartially for all communities. Our guarantees are a way of ensuring this and are reaching 4.60 crore beneficiaries,” said AICC General Secretary, Karnataka in-charge, Randeep Singh Surjewala.
