A political crisis is looming large in the State with Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa deciding to go ahead with a reshuffle of the State Cabinet on Wednesday. Several Ministers opposed to the Chief Minister have come together and raised a banner of revolt.
On a day of fast-paced political developments, three Ministers — Minister for Higher Education Arvind Limbavali, Minister for Textiles and Sports Gulihatti D. Shekhar and Minister for Libraries Shivanagouda Nayak — who were directed by the Chief Minister to put in their papers refused to oblige. Thereafter, the Chief Minister recommended to Governor H.R. Bhardwaj to drop them from the Ministry, and this was immediately notified.
A short while later Mr. Limbavali sent across his resignation letter to the Chief Minister. Mr. Shekhar is among the five independents extending support to the Yeddyurappa government, which has a strength of 117 members in the 224-member Legislative Assembly.
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Sources in the Governor's establishment told The Hindu that the Chief Minister, earlier in the day, informed the Governor about the impending Cabinet Expansion and the names of six legislators — Shobha Karandlaje, V. Somanna, A. Narayanaswamy, C.H. Vijayashankar, C.C. Patil and A. Ramadas — whom he proposed to induct into the Council of Ministers.
Later in the day, Ministers loyal to the BJP national general secretary Ananth Kumar met under the leadership of Minister for Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Jagadish Shettar to express their resentment over the Ministry expansion. Among those at this meeting were the Bellary Ministers, G. Janardhan Reddy, G .Karunakara Reddy and B. Sriramulu, who earlier held discussions with Ministers and legislators loyal to them. Mr. Yeddyurappa will face another serious problem on Wednesday when he undertakes the task of portfolio allocation.