The focus of the much-waited Cabinet reshuffle has shifted from the State capital to the national capital, with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah leaving for New Delhi on Thursday afternoon for discussions with Central leaders on finalising inclusions and exclusions.
According to sources in the Chief Minister’s Secretariat, on reaching New Delhi on Thursday evening, Mr. Siddaramaiah met senior leader Ahmed Patel. He also met Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha, M. Mallikarjun Kharge, and AICC general secretary and party in charge for Karnataka, Digvijaya Singh.
The Cabinet reshuffle will take place before the commencement of the monsoon session on July 4, if Mr. Siddaramaiah gets an appointment with party president Sonia Gandhi. She must give her consent to the list prepared on Friday, according to sources in the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC).
Though, buoyed by the victory of candidates in the recently concluded Rajya Sabha and Legislative Council polls, Mr. Siddaramaiah is under tremendous pressure from both aspirants and those who want to remain in the Cabinet, said a senior party leader.
Apprehensive of their fate in the reshuffle, many Ministers met Mr. Siddaramaiah before his departure to Delhi. Aspirants are pressurising him to drop “non-performing, tainted Ministers” and include new faces while keeping the 2018 polls in mind.
K.B. Koliwad (Ranebennur), five-time MLA from Belthangady Vasanth Bangera, Anil Lad (Ballari) and Siddu Nyamagouda (Jamkhandi) are learnt to have met Mr. Siddaramaiah and appealed to him to include them in the Cabinet.
Byrathi Basavaraj (K.R. Puram), S.T. Somashekar (Yeshwantpur) and Munirathna (Rajarajeshwari Nagar) also met him. Mr. Munirathna said they have appealed to Mr. Siddaramaiah to accommodate any one of them.
Minister of State for Agriculture Krishna Byre Gowda told media persons that he was leaving for New Delhi on Friday.
‘The CM is under tremendous pressure from both aspirants and those who want to remain in Cabinet’
