Amid talks of a possible alliance of her party with the Congress in Telangana, the YSR Telangana Party chief Y.S. Sharmila on Monday (May 29) met with Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar at his residence in Bengaluru.
It was the first meeting between the two leaders since Mr. Shivakumar assumed office as Karnataka's Deputy Chief Minister. Ms. Sharmila had previously lauded Mr. Shivakumar for his instrumental role in the Congress' victory in the recent Karnataka Assembly election.
The YSRTP president had on May 17, reacting to rumours of an alliance between her party and the Congress for the upcoming 2023 Telangana Assembly elections said, "we are open for talks with anybody as we do not want KCR [Telangana Chief Minster K. Chandrashekar Rao] to return to power in the State."
"This is an election year, so every party will try their best for everything in every other way, so it's not surprising," Ms. Sharmila had said.
Meanwhile two days after the Karnataka Cabinet reached its full strength of 34, portfolios were allocated with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah keeping Finance and his Deputy D.K. Shivakumar getting Major and Medium Irrigation, and Bengaluru City Development ministries.
Other than this, Mr. Siddaramaiah has also kept the ministries of Cabinet Affairs, Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms, Intelligence, Information, IT and BT Infrastructure development and all unallocated portfolios. Mr. Shivakumar, under the Bengaluru City Development Ministry, will be having control over BBMP, BWSSB, BMRDA, BMRCL and BDA.
