Govt’s Rs 600 Cr scheme to develop minority colonies seen Siddaramaiah’s bid to win over Muslims

The Karnataka Cabinet decision to spend Rs 600 crore over the next two years on upgrading the housing colonies of minorities is being seen as Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s renewed outreach to win over Muslims upset with the Congress over the action on the community leaders in recent weeks.

Thursday’s Cabinet meeting, chaired by Siddaramaiah, decided to draw up working plans to develop the housing colonies of minorities during 2026-27 and 2027-28 at a budget of Rs 600 crore.

The BJP, however, attacked the decision. The party state president BY Vijayendra called the decision yet another attempt by the chief minister to appease minorities though people across religions and communities voted the Congress party to power. Dy chief minister DK Shivakumar, however, objected to magnifying the government’s increased allocation for minorities, and not highlighting the expenditure on other programmes.


Critics called the decision a move to win over Muslims citing the dire financial position hurting other programmes.

Muslim scholars and religious leaders expressed outrage at a spate of actions by the Congress on the community’s political leaders finding fault with the action in the run up to the April 9 bypoll to Davanagere South assembly constituency.

The party, in a bid to send a stern message to detractors, ousted MLC Abdul Jabbar as minority cell chief and fired CM’s political secretary Naseer Ahmed for their alleged inaction to defuse trouble after the party chose to field Samarth Shamanur, a Lingayat candidate and scion of the Shamanur Shivashankarappa’s family. The party has also sidelined Housing & Wakf Minister BZ Zameer Ahmed Khan for not doing enough to placate the local Muslim leaders.

The Congress was accused of overlooking the claims of the local Muslim leaders, some of whom nursed the ambition to contest. The community was hoping to clinch the ticket on the grounds that it is also the single largest in the constituency.

Some of the Muslims leaders are suspected to have fielded other Muslim candidates to sabotage the official candidate after the denial of ticket. Since the bypoll, the Congress has been worried over the fate of the outcome in Davanagere South as sections of Muslims either stayed away from campaigning for the Congress or backed rival candidates.