Mahesh Kumathalli, who left the Congress to join the BJP and won the recent byelection and now rumoured to be not made a Minister, openly expressed his disappointment against the BJP on Sunday.

“I sacrificed my MLA post to come to the BJP. There are reports that they don’t want to induct me into the Cabinet. I will not stoop to their level and ask why. They are asking me to sacrifice again. I am ready to do that, but it has deeply hurt me. I will do whatever [Chief Minister] Yediyurappa assigns me to. I am ready to even sweep the floor of BJP office,” said Mr. Kumathalli who won from Athani, Belagavi district.

Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa, during the byelection campaign and when he visited Belagavi last week, said all the three MLAs from Belagavi would be made Ministers. “Now, the Chief Minister seems to have changed his mind. I won’t ask why, but will remind him that I have come to the BJP trusting him,” the Athani MLA said.

Laxman Savadi, BJP candidate for 2018 Assembly polls, was defeated by Mr. Kumathalli who contested on Congress ticket and later resigned and joined the BJP. However, the BJP high command made Mr. Savadi Deputy Chief Minister. The high command reportedly blocked the name of Mr. Kumathalli on the grounds that the same Assembly constituency could not be given two Ministries, especially when a Deputy Chief Minister in the government is from the same constituency. Responding to this, Mr. Kumathalli asked did the BJP not know that he was from the same constituency when he joined the party.

Mr. Kumathalli is now demanding that since Mr. Yediyurappa and the BJP do not want to induct him into the Cabinet, they should at least make A.H. Vishwanath, who lost the bypolls, a Minister. Mr. Vishwanath, who the party has refused to make a Minister, has now threatened to write a tell-all book on how the previous Congress-JD(S) coalition government was toppled to bring the BJP to power.

At a press conference on Sunday, Mr. Yediyurappa said the Supreme Court judgment was very clear that those defeated in the bypolls could not be made Ministers. “There are technical difficulties. They must understand,” he said.