NEW DELHI/BANGALORE:The new Karnataka ministry will not have a deputy chief minister nor will the mining barons, the two Reddy brothers, find a berth, Chief Minister D.V. Sadananda Gowda said Wednesday.
The Bharatiya Janata Party central leadership was not in favour of creating a deputy chief minister’s post in Karnataka as it was not there in any BJP-rule state, Gowda told reporters in New Delhi.
He also ruled out making the Reddy brothers – G. Janardhana Reddy and G. Karunakara Reddy – ministers again as they have been indicted in the illegal mining scam by the Lokayukta (ombudsman).
“I am not the only one to take decisions on all these things. All the directions given by the central leadership will be carried out,” he said on his visit to New Delhi after becoming chief minister Aug 4 succeeding scam-hit B.S. Yeddyurappa.
Besides the two Reddy brothers, the Lokayukta has also named their close associate B. Sriramulu. Janardhana was tourism minister in the Yeddyurappa cabinet while Karunakara handled revenue portfolio and Sriramulu held the health ministry.
Gowda, who defeated former rural development minister Jagadish Shettar to become BJP’s second chief minister in Karnataka, said all differences with him (Shettar) would be sorted out.
He said he had handled differences within the party when he headed the Karnataka unit for four years. Like he had sorted out the differences then, now also “all issues will be resolved”, Gowda asserted. (IANS)
