Bengaluru, Aug 19 (Representative) Close on the heels of a letter written to Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah by Congress MLAs against their ministers, four senior ministers have shot off a letter to AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge, expressing displeasure over nomination of Sudham Das for Karnataka Legislative Council. Das is believed to be a close confidant of Deputy Chief Minister and Karnataka Congress President DK Shivakumar. The letter was written by Dr G Parameshwara (Home Minister), RB Thimmapur (Excise Minister), HC Mahadevappa (Social Welfare Minister) and KH Muniyappa (Food and Civil Supplies Minister).Das had resigned from the post of Information Commissioner in March 2023 and subsequently joined the Congress. The ministers wrote, “We are of the considered opinion that we must be taken into confidence before finalising the names for nomination to upper house, so far neither the state leaders nor the high command has discussed this matter with us. We feel terribly let down.” “We strongly urge that the regional balance and social engineering will be adhered to in selecting the candidates.We have reliably learnt that one Mr Sudham Das, a former bureaucrat, who was serving in Enforcement Directorate and abruptly resigned a few years back for strange reasons and went on to become Information Commissioner in Karnataka,” they added.
“Mr Sudham Das resigned from the Post of Information Commissioner in March 2023 and joined the Congress Party. He is hardly a few months old in the Party and his contribution for building the Party or for electioneering in the recent Assembly Election is almost nil. We hereby strongly oppose considering such persons and request you to drop this, if it is under consideration,” the Ministers wrote. Therefore, they urged Kharge to drop the name of Das and consider the name of a loyal party worker. “We request your goodself to consider the personalities, who have relentlessly worked for decades in the party and are loyal soldiers of the party,” the Ministers said in the letter. “We would like to propose deserving names and request you to give us an opportunity and oblige,” they added. Meanwhile, the BJP attacked the Congress party stating that the high command does not have control over their leaders and the internal bickerings persist. “This shows that the party is controlled by a very few people and you know who they are,” BJP MLC Chaluvadi Narayanaswamy told a section of media.