Bommai has assured me he will make minister again: Eshwarappa

Sulking Karnataka BJP legislator KS Eshwarappa on Tuesday claimed Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has assured him he will make him a minister soon. Along with him, senior MLA Ramesh Jarkiholi may also be inducted into the cabinet, he added.

Eshwarappa resigned as the state Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister earlier this year after a contractor from Belagavi allegedly committed suicide in an Udupi hotel accusing him of demanding 40 per cent commission in public work in 2020.

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The Shivamogga MLA had earlier decided not to attend the ongoing winter session of the Karnataka legislature in Belagavi to protest against not giving him a ministerial position.

“The chief minister has assured me he will speak to the party high command and induct me in the cabinet after I got a clean chit,” he told reporters here.

“Not only me but Ramesh Jarkiholi also will be made a minister because he too got a clean chit,” the MLA added.

His grouse was that despite the investigation agency giving him a clean chit, he has been denied a place in the cabinet.

Jarkiholi had resigned over the alleged sex-for-job scam.

Eshwarappa, the former deputy chief minister and the ex-BJP state president, said he did not approach anyone in the party national headquarters but relied on Bommai, who had promised him cabinet re-induction once he came out clean.

When asked whether he would attend the Assembly after the assurance, Eshwarappa said, “I will speak to the Chief Minister in the evening before taking any decision,” the BJP legislator said. Both Eshwarappa and Jarkiholi had earlier been given clean chit by the probe agencies in the respective cases.

(With Agency inputs)