Randeep Singh Surjewala meets Karnataka Ministers, elicits responses to complaints against them

Amidst the ongoing leadership tussle between the camps of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar, All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary in charge of Karnataka Randeep Singh Surjewala met a few Cabinet Ministers on Monday, to elicit their response to purported complaints that he received during his earlier interaction with legislators.

According to party sources, Mr. Surjewala has met at least 85 Congress legislators during the past two visits and heard their grievances, besides taking feedback on governance issues. Party sources said that many legislators had raised the issue of lack of funding for development works and inaccessibility of many Ministers, based on which the Central leader was interacting with the Ministers.

On Monday, he met Housing Minister B.Z. Zameer Ahmed Khan, Urban Development Minister Byrathi Suresh, and was scheduled to meet Social Welfare Minister H.C. Mahadevappa. Mr. Khan was in the eye of the storm recently after Aland legislator B.R. Patil alleged corruption in the allotment of houses.

When asked if the issue was raised by Mr. Surjewala, Mr. Khan said that it had not been discussed. The Minister said that some legislators had spoken about the need for allotment of more houses in their constituencies, and that it had come up for discussion.

“Mr. Surjewala has told me that my department was number one in performance and I am elated with the compliment. Unlike others, he does not compliment unnecessarily.”

Education Minister Madhu Bangarappa is also expected to meet the Central leader as part of the exercise to review the OBC cell since functioning of all the wings of the parties are also being reviewed.

Sources said that though Mr. Surjewala is expected to meet all Ministers and the remaining legislators during this visit, he is likely to return if his interactions remained incomplete. “He is expected to submit a report to AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge and Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi after the completion of the exercise.”