Bengaluru, May 31: Even though four MPs from Karnataka have been inducted into Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led new cabinet of ministries, BJP state president B S Yeddyurappa is said to be disappointed as none of his nominees are among the new union ministers.
The PM Modi and his second-in-command Amit Shah decided to choose their own candidates in the first round of picks for the Union council of ministers, bypassing the Lingayat strongman’s recommendations.
Yeddyurappa was said to be hoping that the Bengaluru North MP DV Sadananda Gowda will be pipped to the post by his close confidant Shobha Karandlaje (Udupi-Chikkamagaluru MP) under the Vokkaliga quota. However, the "need" of an experienced hand from the south after the demise of HN Ananth Kumar saw Gowda, though considered a "coastal" Vokkaliga, gain the upper hand and make it to the cabinet.
From the Lingayat community, Yeddyurappa had hoped that one of his candidates PC Gaddigoudar, Shivakumar Udasi or GS Basavaraju would make the cut as they are experienced politicians with four, three and two terms respectively, behind them. But here too, Modi chose Belagavi MP Suresh Angadi as the Lingayat representative.
In fact, before the elections, Angadi’s candidature was resisted by the local BJP unit on account of anti-incumbency factor. But independent reports commissioned by the BJP favoured the new entrant into the Modi cabinet, which the elections, subsequently, bore out.
So two Brahmins in Pralhad Joshi and Nirmala Sitharaman have made it to the cabinet from Karnataka with one Vokkaliga and Lingayat each. Yeddyurappa will now be hoping that he can get some of his supporters into the cabinet when it goes for an expansion. In Modi 1.0, there were five ministers from Karnataka. With four now, there’s a place still left in the state quota.
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