BENGALURU: The wait for legislators of the Congress and JD(S) aspiring to become ministers just got longer. The Congress has decided to take a call on expanding the state cabinet only after the first week of October.
Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president Dinesh Gundu Rao said the party will wait till after the ‘pitrupaksha’ (period when obeisance is paid to deceased family members) to make any changes to the cabinet. This is the third time the cabinet expansion has been postponed by the Congress. Six berths are vacant from the Congress’ quota of 22 while JD(S) has one berth vacant from its share of 11.
“Not just (Minister H D) Revanna, there are people in our party who keep a tab on astrology too. Cabinet expansion will take place after October first week,” said Dinesh Gundu Rao. The coordination committee which met earlier this month had decided to expand the cabinet in the last week of September. The dates were postponed to October first week keeping the bypolls to the Legislative Council in mind. Despite all its candidates getting elected unopposed in the MLC bypolls, the coalition partners have decided to push the cabinet expansion further.
Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, who went on a temple visit to Tamil Nadu on Thursday, also affirmed that the state cabinet was likely to be expanded after October 10. The MLAs, especially from the Congress, have been waiting impatiently for the high command’s decision on who will be inducted.
While seniors like M B Patil, Ramalinga Reddy, H K Patil and Roshan Baig are keen on being inducted into the cabinet, MLAs like Parameshwar Naik, Nagendra and M T B Nagaraj have been lobbying hard for cabinet berths. The Congress, however, anticipating more rebellion after cabinet expansion, seems to be pushing the date as far as possible.