Bengaluru: Karnataka’s new Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai has relieved BJP legislators and experts who were appointed to key advisory positions by his predecessor B. S. Yediyurappa and his three deputy Chief Ministers.
Bommai was sworn-in on July 28, after the BJP high command decided to drop its aging party mascot in Karnataka, asking the 78-year-old veteran leader to step down from the post on July 26, exactly after he completed two years in the office.
In a notification issued by the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms (DPAR), 19 people have been relieved from various positions they held in the previous government.
Reliving orders, dated August 1 and August 2, stated that with Yediyurappa resigning on July 26, the council of ministers also gets dissolved automatically, and as a result, whatever appointments were made during Yediyurappa’s tenure by him or his Deputy Chief Ministers or ministers also get ended.
As per August 1 order, Yediyurappa’s advisor M. Lakshminarayana, and educationist M.R. Doreswamy will no longer serve as the government’s advisor on education reforms. Similarly, Beluru Sudarshan has been relieved as the Chief Minister’s e-governance advisor. Startup investor Prashant Prakash, the Chief Minister’s advisor on policy and strategy, was also let go as was former MLC Mohan Limbikai, who was the Chief Minister’s legal advisor.
Three of Yediyurappa’s Political Secretaries – M.P. Renukacharya, D.N. Jeevaraj and N. R. Santosh – will also go.
Shankargouda Patil, Karnataka’s special representative in New Delhi, has also been relieved.
The notification came days after Bommai picked 2000-batch IAS officer V. Ponnuraj as his Secretary, replacing S. Selvakumar who was Yediyurappa’s choice.
While as per August 2 order, all contractual appointments and advisory posts made by three Deputy Chief Ministers stand cancelled and all government officers who had come on deputation to work with ministers, Deputy Chief Ministers, and the Chief Minister have been relieved from their duties and directed them to report back to their parent departments with immediate effect.
