Also read: Truce claims first victim, Shobha resigns

By Team Mangalorean - Mangalore

Mangalore, November 9, 2009: So what if  I am not a minister anymore, I wield more power as a MLA, no minister, no lobby or no vested interests can stop me now in serving the people said Shoba Karandlaje, the ousted minister of Yeddyurappa government. This was what she told her folks in her village Charvaka near Kaniyoor in Puttur taluk.

Her father Monappa Gowda and brother Lakshman Gowda and mother Poovakka live in this village mending their small farm. Even after her becoming a minister the conditions in her small house had not changed and why should it? Asked Lakshman Gowda when Mangalorean.com called him.

"She had no ambition of becoming rich nor to hold power, but her only wish was to be closer to people especially the rural folks, farmers, labourers, women and children, this was what she had inherited from her training in RSS and ABVP. She is not an ordinary person she has masters in Social Work and when she was being trained in Roshni Nilaya School of social work Shobha had adequately shown her concern towards oppressed classes. As long as her intentions are clear no political power can harm her" Mr. Gowda told. 

However her mother Poovakka could not contain her sorrow, she said, her detractors were feeling insecure due to her work, but I know they cannot put her down, my daughter is a strong woman.
 
The village though has not seen much of her in the last one decade everybody is well aware of her capabilities, Manjunath Herale a BJP bottom level leader says she has no coterie like her detractors. Whenever she visited Charvaka to meet her parents and siblings she used to come by train get down in Kaniyoor, take a taxi home, and I have often wondered why she was alone, but she was always alone, which is perhaps why her detractors were afraid of her and wanted her out of the cabinet.

The political pundits in the BJP district office in Mangalore are mum about her ouster, they appear to be sitting on the fence, they are not sure if they have to protest or support her ouster. So they all have clammed up and are wearing a dignified silence.

Shobha who addressed the media after submitting her resignation continued to ask her detractors what was her fault. "On many an occasion, I have asked them to point out my mistakes. Till today, none of them have told me. This has hurt me a lot," she said adding that she would abide by the decision of the party which gave her this position. Shobha turned emotional when asked about her achievements, she said the state had stood second in country in implementing the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana during her tenure, "I hope the new minister will continue the good work," she said.

Shobha was an ABVP activist and headed the state group of Rashtirya Sevika Samithi (RSS's women's wing).  After her legendary fight to save Kumaradhara river campaign in 2001 she achieved meteoric rise in politics which landed her in the state cabinet under Mr. Yeddyurappa as the second in command. 

Shobha was elected as an MLC in 2004 but soon contested from Yeshwanthpur assembly constituency and was elected with a big lead over her Congress opponent. It is stated in the political circles that the reformed don of Mangalore origin Mr. Muthappa Rai had helped her to win it. In the cabinet she was so powerful that even the senior most ministers like Dr. V.S.Acharya, Karunakar Reddy, Subramanya Naidu and others had to route their requests through her.

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Truce claims first victim, Shobha resigns