Bengaluru: Karnataka Governor Vajubhai Vala has accepted the resignation of Tourism Minister CT Ravi from the Council of Ministers on the recommendation of Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa, an official said on Sunday.
“Though Ravi submitted his resignation letter to Yediyurappa in October after he was appointed BJP national General Secretary on September 26, it was forwarded to the Governor on Saturday,” the official told IANS here.
A Raj Bhavan communique said that the Governor accepted Ravi’s resignation as Minister for Tourism, Kannada and Culture, Youth Empowerment and Sports.
Ravi told IANS over a month ago that he resigned from the post to uphold the party’s ‘one-man-one-post’ policy and to focus on party’s activities in the southern states.
Ravi, 53, is a 4-time legislator from Chikkamagaluru segment, about 240km northwest of Bengaluru.
Ravi’s resignation comes ahead of the state’s imminent third Cabinet expansion after the November 10 results of by-elections held on November 3 in RR Nagar in Bengaluru and Sira in Tumakuru district.
During campaigning in RR Nagar on October 31, Yediyurappa told the people that he would make BJP candidate N Muniratna a Cabinet Minister if he was elected in the by-election.
The by-election was caused by Muniratna’s resignation in July 2019 along with a dozen Congress legislators who crossed over to the BJP after the Janata Dal(Secular)-Congress coalition government fell on July 23, 2019.
The by-election in Sira was held due to the death of JD-S MLA B Satyanarayana in Bengaluru on August 4.
In the 34-member Ministry, there are 7 vacancies though a dozen lawmakers are vying for the slots.
The Chief Minister on October 12 gave Medical Education Minister K Sudhakar the Health portfolio too, shifting B Sriramulu to the Social Welfare Department which was earlier with Deputy Chief Minister Govid Karjol.
Yediyurappa also divested Sriramulu of the Backward Classes Department and kept it with him.
The Cabinet was last expanded on February 6 when 10 legislators, who defected from the Congress and JD-S were inducted after they won the December 5 by-elections, caused by their resignations in July 2019.
