Bengaluru, Feb 3: A wave of dissatisfaction has hit the six-month-old BJP government against the backdrop of chief minister B S Yediyurappa's announcement to induct 13 aspirants in the second cabinet expansion on February 6.
In the first cabinet expansion, the chief minister had inducted 17 ministers on August 20, 2019.
Among the 13, ten will be those defectors from Congress and the JD(S) who were disqualified earlier and won the assembly by-election in December last year.
The rest will be the 'native BJP leaders', as deputy chief minister Govind Karjol put it.
Speculations are rife that Mahadevapura MLA Arvind Limbavali, Hukkeri MLA Umesh Katti and C P Yogeshwar, who had lost to H D Kumaraswamy from Channapatna assembly segment,would be inducted.
If Yogeshwar is included in the cabinet then he will bethe second minister after Deputy chief minister Laxman Savadi who had lost and yet made it to the cabinet.
The possible induction of Yogeshwar and Savadi, who was made deputy chief minister despite losing the assembly elections, are also a "reason" for discontent in the BJP.
Hectic activities began in the power corridor and MLAs started forming groups to impress upon the chief minister to include their members in the ministry.
While one group was from the "Kalyana Karnataka" region, the others were the defectors who will be excluded in the cabinet expansion.
A few MLAS from 'Kalyana Karnataka' region or erstwhile Hyderabad-Karnataka region comprising six districts, met at the Legislature Home and held a meeting.
The meeting was led by Shorapur MLA Narasimha Nayak akaRaju Gouda and Honnalli MLA M P Renukacharya.
The MLAs of the Kalyana Karnataka region were unanimous that their backward region should get representation in the cabinet.
Later, Gouda met the Chief Minister and requested that their region be given adequate representation in the cabinet, which is lacking development.
Talking to reporters, Gouda said, "We had given representations to all the MPs, MLAs and the chief minister. Today also we all had a meeting and later called on the Chief Minister requesting him to make any MLA from our region a minister."
He said any imbalance in cabinet expansion will cause trouble to the MLAs from Kalyana Karnataka region.
"If you make the defeated candidates ministers then include 120 people in the cabinet," an aggrieved Gouda taunted.
Renukacharya too echoed the same sentiments.
"If you give preference to the defeated candidates then what will happen to those who won the election? Where should the winners of election go? We emphasise upon giving preference to the winners."
On the other hand, the defectors who jumped the Congress and the JD(S) ship and helped form the BJP government too had a meeting in Bengaluru, said BJP sources.
They were unanimous that not only the 11 MLAs who won theelection be made ministers but also A H Vishwanath and M T BNagaraj who had unsuccessfully contested the assembly by- polls from Hunasuru and Hoskote on a BJP ticket.
Vishwanath, who was quite vocal on Sunday for dropping his name, was mellowed down on Monday after meeting Yediyurappa.
However, his insistence for getting a cabinet berth remained intact.
"I did not make any proposal before him and will not do it in future because he (Yediyurappa) knows what has to be done,"Vishwanath told reporters after meeting the chief minister.
When he was reminded of Yediyurappa's statement that therewere legal complications in making him a minister, Vishwanath said, "This government has legal experts and the advocate general. They will speak."
Amid speculations that Athani MLA Mahesh Kumathalli may not get a cabinet berth in the reshuffle, the defected MLAs led by Gokak BJP MLA Ramesh Jarkiholi, had a meeting to decide their future strategy, said party sources.
Currently, there are 18 ministers, including the chief minister, in the cabinet, which has a sanctioned strength of 34. Sixteen berths are vacant.
The cabinet expansion exercise will be a delicate task for Yediyurappa as he has to ensure adequate representation for various castes and regions.
The ministry already has eight Lingayats, including Yediyurappa; three Vokkaligas; a Brahmin; three SCs, two OBCs and one ST.
Opposition parties have been critical of the BJP and Yediyurappa over the delay in the cabinet expansion, alleging he is weak and his administration has collapsed.
Reacting to the cabinet expansion, former chief minister Siddaramaiah quipped, "A drama is taking place. Let it happen on February 6. Afterwards we will see what all happens."
Comments
this boppa,vijay and naren dont hve the clear picture of this RSS and sangi guys so they brak from there side as they blive we all muslims are blongs to terrorist grp thn can they explain abt this RSS and sangi guys wht they are upto they want to divied the country or make a peace loving country. till now they divied the country by the name of religons .
this guys plan same policy which played by british divied and rule this sangi and RSS are born under there rules this sangis helped thm even nw they do the same.
comment #6 wht u written in last line of ur comment this shld b applied for the people inculding sangi and RSS guys aswel
dont blame we muslims we are very proud INDIAN MUSLIMS
we are proud to b an INDIAN more then u sangi and rss guys
and dont blame others first look into u wht gd deed hve u don till nw this for boppa,vijay and naren
Dear Naren
you dont have 70 virgins ...you have to taste only one that too Najas......... Brother Mustafa left this Duniya as Tippu did . and enjoying the favours from the creator . when he was hacked to death by cowards in the dark with the help of Coward fascist police . no problem we are borned for that we do not mourne but his family will curse you and you sangh .
Bopanna and vijay, every one will know your bulsh*t sangi parivar, you are sitting in and posting comments, stupid come out, you go and fight instead of sending poor in rana rang,
Naren, don't post your stupid and bulsh*t comments, come and fight face to face, Israel is your father country they also like you killing innocent people in back door.................ISIS and RSS is the same.....isis will not attack israel because its born from there only..
Ameen
Bupa, vijaya ..Mangalore ( Naren ignored ) ....Guys if u want to know the truth about this case contact the Vakil Dinesh Hegde Ulapady...before barking
So naren kotian,
Then start to attack anti nationalist first from mohan baaghwath, thogadia and so on means rss must be removed from the route. Then only brotherhood will remain in our great country India.
Jai Hind
same third rated guys rejoiced when muslim gangs killed prashanth poojari ... and yesterday one jihadi sitting in saudi , i think by name ahmed ... said next round will be of kiran shetty :) it shows ... and it says everything ... let it be ... i wish all murderers of prashanth poojari meets same end ,i pray to god ... israel policy follow madle beku ... when anti nationalist strike our eyes , we must strike their heart, kidneys ,eyes , liver ... legs and brain ... then only systerms will be back to normal .
Well said Bopanna....these people(so called peace lovers)they only know to blame RSS...
Dear Bopanna,
What about the gather during poor prashanth poojary funeral.All are belongs to anti India criminal rss group.
Karnataka police dept is well aware about all criminal groups. They never bow to any influence or to any muscle power. They kicked your dirty leader Togadia from airport back to his home town hell.
Jai Hind! Jai Karnataka!
Bopanna seems to have too much of hatred towards mulsims despite being and earning in an Islam country
If he hates muslims he has no moral rights to be, where he is currently
A theif's friend will be another theif only.
Let the police keep an eye on all these people who attended the event - a lot of terrorists there I am sure
Masha Allah great .Rest in peac my brother mustafa.
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