MH Ambareesh quits as Congress MLA after Siddaramaiah sacks him from cabinet

Siddaramaiah had sacked 14 ministers as part of his efforts to improve the working of the government.

Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's bold move to sack 14 ministers and induct 13 new faces in his council of ministers is turning out to be a big political crisis for the Congress.

Actor and former housing minister MH Ambareesh, who is among those sacked, Monday, resigned as party MLA. The Mandya leader sent his resignation to the Deputy Speaker's office through an aide on Monday noon.

However, reports said that the Deputy Speaker Shivashankara Reddy -currently officiating as Speaker - has rejected the resignation letter on the grounds that Ambateesh did not personally hand over the resignation letter, as per norms.

Supporters of the other ministers who were sacked by the Chief Minister have also took to the streets to protest against the move.

The other ministers who were sacked: Satish Jarkiholi, S R Patil, Manohar Tahasildhar, Baburao Chinchansur, V Srinivasa Prasad, Qamarul Islam, P T Parameshwar Naik, Shamanoor Shivashankarappa, Shivaraj Sangappa Tangadagi, K Abayachandra Jain, Vinay Kumar Sorake, Dinesh Gundu Rao and Kimmane Ratnakar.

The new ministers – 9 cabinet rank and 4 ministers of state – who were sworn in are SS Mallikarjun, Tanveer Sait, MR Seetharam, Santosh Lad, Kagodu Thimmappa, Ramesh Kumar, Basavaraj Raya Reddy, HY Meti, Ramesh Jarkiholi, Rudrappa Lamani, Priyank Kharge, Pramod Madhwaraj and Eshwar Khandre.