Karnataka Home minister quits to do Cong chief's duties

Karnataka Home Minister G Parameshwara on Thursday resigned from the post following the Congress leadership's decision to continue with him as the party's state unit chief ahead of the 2018 Assembly polls.

A day after the Congress announced structural changes keeping in mind the Assembly polls, Parameshwara submitted his resignation to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.

Announcing that Siddaramaiah would be the party's chief ministerial face in the next Assembly polls, the Congress had yesterday asked Parameshwara to resign from the cabinet and devote himself to his duties as the party's state unit chief.

"As per the high-command's decision, I am submitting my resignation," Parameshwara told reporters here before meeting the chief minister.

Parameshwara, a Dalit, was sworn-in as home minister on November 2, 2015. He did not get

the deputy chief minister's post he was aspiring for, but held the post of the party's state unit chief.

Thanking Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice- president Rahul Gandhi for continuing with him as the Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) chief, he said, "It is a challenge."

Terming the other organisational changes as a "measure to strengthen" the party, Parameshwara said, "We will strive together to ensure that the party retains power in Karnataka."

The Congress on Thursday appointed S R Patil as the working president of its Karnataka unit, along with the present working president, Dinesh Gundurao, and state Power Minister D K Shivakumar as the chairman of the campaign committee.

Adopting a "please all" formula by performing a "balancing act" of accommodating all the castes and communities, it had included MP and former Union minister K H Muniyappa as a special invitee to the Congress Working Committee, the top decision-making body of the party.

Parameshwara said the organisational restructuring was effected by the high-command keeping the election in mind.