Siddaramaiah Slams BS Yediyurappa, Says Karnataka Relief Work Not Possible Without Cabinet

Bengaluru: Former Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah on Sunday came down heavily on chief minister BS Yediyurappa for his alleged failure to form his cabinet even in the wake of severe flood in the state.

"Yediyurappa is performing mono acting. Its a one-man show. I dont know how a single man can handle so much. It is humanly impossible. More than two weeks have passed. Just one man. There is no council of ministers. There is no government at all," Siddaramaiah told reporters here.

The former chief minister, who could not travel to the flood-hit areas due to a cataract operation, said, "A chief minister cannot be called the council of ministers. Cabinet means the council of ministers, not just the Chief Minister."

Siddaramaiah slammed Yediyurappa by saying the dedication he had shown to topple the coalition government of Congress and the JD(S) was missing with respect to forming the government.

He was referring to the turn of events in Karnataka since the rebellion among the ruling coalition MLAs, allegedly engineered by the BJP, brought down the Congress and JD(S) government led by the then chief minister HD Kumaraswamy.

Stressing the need to form a full-fledged government with dedicated ministers, Siddaramaiah said there was scope for maximum relief work only if there was a full-fledged government.

If there were district in-charge ministers, revenue minister, finance minister, agriculture minister, cooperation minister and various other ministers then it would have been convenient, he said. He, however, said he was not passing a comment but projecting the reality.

Ridiculing Yediyurappas statement that the MLAs were the ministers of the area, Siddaramaiah said, In a democracy, can MLAs be ministers? Can he take a decision on the spot? Under what provision has power been delegated to the MLA? Who has powers today? Its an irresponsible statement that MLAs are working like ministers, Siddaramaiah said.

On the flood situation, the former chief minister said the toll must be much higher than the figures given by the government and pegged the loss at Rs 10,000 crore and not Rs 6,000 crore as claimed by the government.

He said Prime Minister Narendra Modi should visit the flood-hit area, declare the floods in Karnataka a national calamity and release Rs 5,000 crore for the state.