Over 150 BJP members submit resignations angry over Sullia MLA not being made minister

In a show of dissent against the Karnataka BJP for omitting MLA S Angara from the first list of state cabinet ministers, over 150 BJP workers including taluk office bearers in Dakshina Kannada's Sullia taluk have submitted their resignations from the party. 

The workers who submitted their resignations are supporters of the Sullia MLA Angara and they are irked by the fact that despite being elected for the fifth time, Angara was not given a ministerial position in the Karnataka cabinet.

Speaking to The News Minute, Sullia MLA S Angara said that he is hurt by the exclusion. “It is hurtful that my constituents have been loyal towards BJP for so many year and yet their representative is not been given a ministerial berth,” he said. 

"Apart from being declared as a ‘reserved’  (Scheduled Tribe constituency) constituency in 1962, representatives from Sullia have not been given their due share of credit in the state cabinet. Where is the social inclusiveness and equality?” President of Sullia BJP Mandal Samithi, Venkat Valalambe said.

A member of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) since 1992, S Angara has continuously won from the Sullia constituency for the Bharatiya Janatha Party since first contesting in 1994. Even when the district considered as BJP bastion lost six of the eight seats to the Congress in the 2013 assembly polls, Sullia was the only seat that was retained by the party owing to S Angara’s popularity. In the 2018 state assembly election Sullia polled highest voter turnout in DK of 83.8% and Angara continued his winning streak with a margin of 26,068 votes.

In the list of 17 ministers announced by Chief Minister Yediyurappa, no leader from Dakshina Kannada was named. The lone representative from coastal Karnataka is Kota Srinivas Poojary, an MLC from Udupi district.

Dakshina Kannada MP Nalin Kumar Kateel was announced as the Karnataka BJP President but the dissenting party workers from Sullia say that the representation from the coastal districts is insufficient in state politics. “For close to a decade now, we have been demanding that Angara, a loyal party member must be made a cabinet minister, but the appeal of the entire constituency is being neglected and kept in abeyance for reasons unknown,” Valalambe added.

The party workers want the BJP to include Angara in the second list of ministers appointed to the cabinet.  “Tentatively we have decided that we will not follow party directions or attend activities directed by the BJP leaders for the political workers. If Angara’s name does not show-up in the second list of Cabinet ministers, then we will formally resign,” he said.    

Story by Story Infinity (Subs and Scribes Media Ventures LLP.)