The Congress Legislature Party (CLP) meeting on Thursday comes amidst simmering discontent among MLAs, who have been denied ministerial berths and have made critical remarks against the two-month-old government led by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.
Many senior MLAs have apparently thumbed down the functioning of close to two dozen Ministers for not responding to their demands for release of funds for development works in their constituencies and transfer of officials.
Listen to legislators
Prior to the CLP meeting, Mr. Siddaramaiah would chair a Cabinet meeting on Thursday and he is expected to instruct Ministers to listen to legislators’ grievances on priority to douse discontent.
According to Congress leaders, party president M. Mallikarjun Kharge would attend the meet and he is expected to provide suggestions to Ministers about their functioning.
The MLAs are demanding funds for their constituency-related work which they had promised during elections. The government has been facing fund crunch on account of the implementation of the five guarantees that would cost more than ₹50,000 crore annually.
Letter to CM
A group of MLAs has apparently written to Mr. Siddaramaiah, who is the CLP leader, to summon a meeting to discuss the issues. The legislators complained that much of the construction work of buildings such as anganwadis, schools and colleges, roadworks and drinking water schemes had remained incomplete and demanded release of funds.
That tension was rising among party leaders was apparent when senior party leader B.K. Hariprasad, MLC, who was denied ministerial berth, said that “he knows how to make Chief Ministers and bring them down too”.
However, Mr. Siddaramaiah brushed aside speculation of discontent in the party, saying a CLP meeting had been convened on July 19 but it had to be postponed following the death of former Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy.
Deputy Chief Minister and KPCC chief D.K. Shivakumar said no one had written any letter to Mr. Siddaramaiah and denied that there was any disgruntlement. But he said that MLAs had been told to wait for implementation of their constituency-level works since the government had been implementing the guarantees on priority.
What MLAs want
“Each MLA is asking for sums in the range of ₹100 crore to ₹300 crore for works in their constituencies. How can we provide ₹300 crore to each MLA? We have told them to keep their plans on hold,” the KPCC president said.
On transfer of officials, Mr. Shivakumar said: “There are demands from MLAs for a say in the transfer of officials; some transfers have been made by Ministers and some others by the Chief Minister.”
Sources in the party said delay in the appointment of heads to various boards and corporations has not gone well with legislators.
