A day after the jubilation over Bharatiya Janata Party’s impressive performance in the bypolls to 15 Assembly constituencies, pressure started building on Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa on Tuesday as lobbying for ministerial berths intensified from various groups, especially senior MLAs in the party and defeated disqualified legislators.
Lobbying commenced even as the State leadership was thinking of confining ministerial expansion to only the victorious defectors in the bypolls. According to sources close to Mr. Yediyurappa, the party is thinking of providing berths to only 11 among them besides former MLA R. Shankar, who abided by the party’s diktat of not contesting bypolls. Expansion exercise is expected to be taken up sometime next week. But this has not gone down well with the senior legislators from the party, who missed out on ministerial berths earlier. Some of them, including senior MLAs S.A. Ramdas, Aravind Limbavali and Umesh Katti, called on the Chief Minister on Tuesday. A report from the FSL, giving a clean chit to Mr. Limbavali on an obscene video involving him, also surfaced on Tuesday indicating that he has thrown his hat into the ring. Former MLA C.P. Yogeshwar is also said to be an aspirant on the grounds that he played a crucial role in triggering defections, paving the way for the formation of the BJP government.
The Chief Minister also had to use his negotiation skills to placate disqualified MLA N. Nagaraju (MTB) as he is reportedly insisting on being a part of the ministry despite losing the bypolls. He met the Chief Minister at his residence in Bengaluru on Tuesday morning and complained that BJP MP B.N. Bache Gowda, whose son Sharath won as a rebel, did not support him properly.
Sources said that he sought disciplinary action against Mr. Bache Gowda. In the evening, Mr. Yediyurappa had to visit Mr. Nagaraju’s house to have a second round of talks to assure him that his interests would be protected.
Another defeated disqualified legislator A.H. Vishwanath too is said to be eyeing a ministerial berth. S.T. Somashekhar, who won the bypolls on BJP ticket, called on Mr. Vishwanath at his residence in Mysuru and brought him to Bengaluru for a meeting with other leaders who switched sides. Mr. Vishwanath said he was confident that the Chief Minister will not ignore him. One of the victorious defectors, Ramesh Jarkiholi, even declared that all the disqualified MLAs including those who lost the bypolls would get ministerial berths.
Amidst these developments, some of those who won the bypolls have started lobbying for plum portfolios.
Mr. Yediyurappa told reporters that all the disqualified legislators, who have won bypolls, would get ministerial portfolios. However, he refused to say anything about those who have lost.
