'Not a chappal to wear and throw': Ambareesh on being sacked as minister

Actor-turned-politician Ambareesh, who resigned as a MLA after being dropped as a Karnataka minister, on Tuesday hit out at Chief Minister Siddaramaiah over the move, saying “are we like slippers to use and throw away”.

“We should have been sent in a dignified way. That is only my objection nothing else. Are we like slippers to use and then throw?” said Ambareesh, as the ruling Congress grappled with the flare up of discontent in the aftermath of Sunday’s major ministry reshuffle.

The sulking actor-turned-politician said he was “ill-treated” by Siddaramaiah.

Maintaining that he was not informed by the chief minister about dropping him, Ambareesh also asked: “Is it dictatorship or Hitler’s rule to just throw away (ministers)?”

The rejig that saw 14 ministers being axed and 13 others inducted to give a face-lift to the three-year-old Siddaramaiah government before the 2018 assembly polls has created problems for the chief minister who took up the exercise after getting the Congress high command’s nod.

Ambareesh on Monday sent a one-line resignation letter addressed to the assembly speaker through his personal assistant but it is yet to be accepted as he himself did not submit it.

“When I’m incapable why should I continue? When chief minister has called me incapable what can I do as an MLA? So I have resigned,” Ambareesh told reporters.

He said: “I will go and give it (resignation) personally.”

Asked about the one-line resignation letter, he said “Only one line should be there (in the resignation letter), reasons should not be given...”  

Ambareesh, who was the housing minister before being dropped, also said the chief minister has not called up to convince him not to resign as MLA.

Responding to a question whether Siddaramaiah had contacted him, he said: “No... as chief minister, there should have been at least some dignity. I was also a central minister, have been a three-time MP; have worked along with him in his cabinet.

“If he had called me and asked me to make way for others, I would have resigned happily. Don’t I command at least that amount of respect?” he questioned.

When reminded that the chief minister during the meeting of council of ministers had indicated that a few ministers will be dropped and sought cooperation, he said: “not in wholesale, we are not wholesale, I’m not saleable... I have led a respectable life, I command certain amount of dignity in public life.”

He said he had never lobbied for power, adding “now they have felt that I’m incapable and dropped me.”

The chief minister calling up and informing him about dropping him from the ministry would have added value to the post Siddaramaiah holds, he added.