An expansion of the Karnataka Ministry is on the anvil although it is subject to the clearance of the Congress high command. A reshuffle of the Ministers is, however, being ruled out at the present juncture given the byelections to three seats of the Legislative Assembly.
Of an optimum strength of 34, including the Chief Minister, the Council of Ministers at present comprises 30 members, and the demand is for filling up four of the vacancies. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had initially stated that the Ministry expansion would be done prior to the marathon session of the legislature. Apparently, with the pressure being exerted on him, he later stated that the exercise would be undertaken after the session.
Sources in the government and in the Congress told
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It is common knowledge that the Chief Minister is not so keen on having a deputy, more so as it is a single-party rule in the State. There are also claims of several other senior Congress leaders, who have been seeking a berth in the Ministry. Prominent among them are Veeranna Mathikatti, K.B. Koliwad, A.B. Malakaraddi, A. Manju and N.A. Haris, apart from C.S. Nadagouda, who was recently appointed the State’s Special Representative in New Delhi — a Cabinet rank post.
The party has only one member of the Legislative Council among the Council of Ministers — S.R. Patil — and he was accommodated since only a member of the Legislative Council of the ruling party (who is a Minister) could be the Leader of the House as per the rules of the procedure of the Legislative Council. The present strength of the Congress in the Upper House is 28 members.
Dr. Parameshwara said the Congress will do its best to take the State forward, and towards this end a fine-tuning of the functioning of the party and the government will be done. He said a Cabinet expansion is also necessary since we have four vacancies in the Ministry and it is for the party high command to take a call on the matter.
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The KPCC president said there could also be a reshuffle and not merely an expansion since some Ministers have to be dropped owing to complaints of non-performance having surfaced. “The Chief Minister and I will discuss with our leadership about this and take a decision,” he said. The matter has also been brought to the notice of the AICC general secretary in-charge of Karnataka, Digvijay Singh.