The decision of some of the senior Ministers in Siddaramaiah’s Cabinet, not to contest lok Sabha polls, has hit the Chief Minister’s efforts to win over 20 seats in Karnataka.
According to the Congress sources, over five Cabinet Ministers, ahead of release of the second list of candidates have told the Chief Minister that they were not inclined to contest lok Sabha polls. In fact Minister for Sugar and Small Scale Industries Prakash B Hukkeri, a strong Congress leader from Bombay Karnataka, has written a letter to the party high command and the Chief Minister that he was not interested in contesting lok Sabha polls. The party wanted him to contest from Chikkodi in Belgaum district.
He said, “I want to continue as a Minister and serve the people of my constituency. I don’t want to desert the constituency after laying the foundation stone for several works in the last nine months.”
He has written to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and All-India Congress Committee general secretary in charge of Karnataka Digvijay Singh and expressed his desire against contesting the election.
In 2009, Hukkeri had unsuccessfully contested lok Sabha elections against Ramesh Katti of the Bharatiya Janata Party and lost by a margin of over 50,000 votes.
A senior Congress leader told The Pioneer that more than five Cabinet Ministers have refused to contest saying that they are more than happy working as Ministers in Karnataka. “The party had hinted Prakash Hukkeri to contest from Chikkodi, H Anjaneya from Chitradurga, Krishna Byre Gowda from North Bangalore, Kimmane Ratnakar from Shimoga, SR Patil from Bagalkote. But they all have refused putting party in for a new hunt for these constituencies.”
According to the party sources, the refusal by some of the Ministers in Karnataka and some senior Union Ministers like Chidambaram, has put the party in a fix.