Bengaluru: The one-month-old B S Yediyurappa government has come under attack from senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah for making Laxman Savadi, who was caught on camera watching porn on his mobile phone during Assembly proceedings in 2012, as deputy Chief Minister.
"It did not happen outside but inside the assembly," the Congress Legislature Party leader and former Chief Minister said, referring to the scandal.
Siddaramaiah also slammed Yediyurappa for giving Savadi the post when he had lost the Assembly elections last year.
"The person who had lost the election has been made the deputy chief minister.BJP does not have shame.
Do they have any?" Siddaramaiah told reporters in Athani Taluk of Belagavi district where he had gone to meet flood victims.
Savadi, along with Govind Karjol and Ashwath Narayan will all be Deputy Chief Ministers in the new cabinet. He will be in charge of the transport ministry.
BJP sources said Savadi was rewarded as he was among those who played a key role in getting 17 MLAs from the Congress and JDS to resign from the Assembly, reducing the then Congress-JDS coalition government headed by H D Kumaraswamy to a minority and paving the way for installation of the BJP regime.
Siddaramaiah also took a dig at the Yediyurappa government for having three deputy chief ministers.
"Three MLAs have been made deputy chief ministers. It had never happened in the past," he said.
Yediyurappa was the one who had created two deputy chief ministers posts (in the past) and now he has three deputy chief ministers, Siddaramaiah added.
He claimed that the three deputy chief ministers posts were created despite Yediyurappa's "unwillingness."
"This seems to have been done to tie down Yediyurappa."
A section of the BJP had also criticised the move of making Savadi a Minister as he was neither a member of Assembly nor Council.
BJP MLA MP Renukacharya, a close aide of Yediyurappa, has protested Savadi's inclusion. "What was the necessity or urgency to induct him (Laxman Savadi) as a minister even though he lost the election?" he asked on Friday. Savadi lost in last year's state election to Congress's Mahesh Kumattalli, who is currently among the MLAs disqualified from the assembly after they quit the Congress-Janata Dal Secular coalition government, causing its collapse.
"National and state leaders made me Deputy Chief Minister, they have shown faith in me. I will make the party stronger and bring good name to the government. I did not ask for this post, senior leaders gave it to me, I accepted it," news agency quoted Savadi as saying in Bengaluru on Tuesday.
In 2012, Savadi and two others were caught watching a pornographic video clip in the assembly, to the BJP's embarrassment. He later sought to clarify that they were watching it for "educational purposes, to know more about the rave parties," as the assembly was about to discuss a rave party scandal in Mangaluru.
All three, Savadi, CC Patil and Krishna Palemar resigned as Karnataka ministers at the time. Mr Patil is also back in the government.
Savadi has apparently been rewarded for his part in destabilising the Congress-JDS coalition. He is a close friend of disqualified MLA Ramesh Jarakiholi, a Congress rebel, and is believed to have persuaded at least half-a-dozen members to cross over.
Though he lost his last election, Savadi is seen to be a very powerful Lingayat leader known for his organizational skills. With agency inputs