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After CM change, buzz grows over Karnataka cabinet rejig
Leaders aware of the development said that at least 10-13 incumbent ministers serving under former CM BS Yediyurappa are likely to be replaced to make room for new faces.
Bengaluru: Speculations of a cabinet expansion in the newly formed government continued to dominate on Thursday even as newly elected Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai on Wednesday made it clear that a decision on forming the new cabinet will only be taken after he meets PM Narendra Modi and other senior leaders in New Delhi.
Bommai on Thursday, however, said that he is planning to leave for Delhi on Friday if Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other senior leaders give him an appointment where the CM is likely to discuss issues relating to the state including flood relief. Later in the day, his office confirmed that he will be leaving to Delhi and meeting Modi on Friday morning. “The cabinet may not be finalised in this meeting but in the next one,” Bommai said in Bengaluru on Thursday. Earlier in the day, speaking to reporters in Bengaluru, in response to a question about pressure on him from ministerial aspirants, he said, “It is common. Once someone becomes the CM and has to expand the cabinet, it is common.”
Leaders aware of the development said that at least 10-13 incumbent ministers serving under former CM BS Yediyurappa are likely to be replaced to make room for new faces, mostly younger, as a way to mitigate the simmering tensions that continues to boil over the naming of Bommai as the chief minister.
“At least 10-13 sitting ministers will be replaced and new faces, who are mostly younger, will be given a cabinet berth,” said one senior legislator of the BJP, requesting anonymity.
The person cited above is one of the probables for a place in the Bommai’s cabinet.
A sizable number of the new faces are likely to be youngsters and some from the core-BJP faction within the party who have long nursed the feeling of neglect under the erstwhile BS Yediyurappa-led government.
Interestingly, a number of legislators have continued to throng Yediyurappa’s residence to sway some influence in their favour, indicating that the 78-year-old continues to wield his influence over the newly named chief minister who is known to be a close associate of the former.
Another senior party functionary, requesting not to be named, on Wednesday said, “The new cabinet is likely to be on the lines of the one at the union government where seniors made way for new faces.”
The forming of the cabinet is also likely to change the caste-equations in the state’s three deputy chief minister-model and there is also a possibility of including a maximum of two more deputy chief minister’s as a way to assuage rising disenchantment, the person cited above said .
Meanwhile, a number of seers from the politically active Kuruba community on Thursday demanded KS Eshwarappa not only be retained in the cabinet but also be given a “befitting” position for all the sacrifices he has made to build the party and organisation in the state.
One prominent seer said that Eshwarappa, a senior legislator from Yediyurappa’s home district of Shivamogga, said that the former has given just as much as Yediyurappa has given to the party and organization. He also threatened that the Kuruba community will come together to confront the “injustice” if he is denied a position.
“We wish to tell the national and state leadership, the party and Sangha Parivara to give him (Eshwarappa) a befitting position for all his efforts,” said the seer. Another seer from the community added that though Eshwarappa should have been considered for the post of chief minister, the party should at least think of making him the deputy chief minister.
Other seniors like Jagadish Shettar have already indicated that they would not like to be part of the new cabinet, which some people say, was a way to avoid the humiliation of being left out of the list, expected by next week.
“When to expand the cabinet and who to induct as ministers is the prerogative of the chief minister. We will have to abide by his decision,” Murugesh Nirani, the former minister for mines and geology said on Thursday in a statement.
Interestingly, Nirani had lobbied hard to get a seat at the cabinet which was possible only this January.
The stepping down of Yediyurappa also threatens the earlier arrangement that placated most of the turncoats into the cabinet who were rewarded for helping dislodge the HD Kumaraswamy-led government and instate the BJP in Karnataka in 2019.
This, people aware of the developments said, could give rise to more dissent within a group whose connections have been firmly with the positions they hold and not with the party, its ideology or the need to fall in line for the larger interests of setting the system right within the government.
“I will talk to the chief minister. Those who have helped form this government and how we should give them their due respect and place, Bommai will think about this and I too will give my suggestions on this,” Yediyurappa said on Thursday.
