BENGALURU: Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, who reportedly got the green signal for a cabinet rejig from Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, is expected to seal the deal after deliberations with AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge and party General Secretary (Organisation) KC Venugopal, sources said.
Siddaramaiah, who paid a courtesy call to Rahul in New Delhi on Saturday, is bound for Delhi again on Monday to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He is also expected to meet Kharge and Venugopal to mostly discuss the cabinet reshuffle. Four days later, he will likely meet Rahul to take the final decision, a source told The New Indian Express.
The CM has prepared the list of ministers who will be dropped and legislators who will be included, the source said. Former cooperation minister KN Rajanna, who was dismissed from the cabinet for indirectly criticizing Rahul over the latter’s ‘vote chori’ claims, will likely make a comeback. His MLC son, Rajendra, met Venugopal several times in Delhi and struck a deal, another source said.
In fact, the party high command had left it to the CM’s discretion to go with the reshuffle sometime back, but was awaiting the Bihar Assembly polls results. Even Siddaramaiah had said the high command had given him the green signal. The reshuffle is to let Congress reassess its strategy for the 2028 Assembly polls with a fresh start, political pundits said.
Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, who got wind of Siddaramaiah’s eagerness to reshuffle the cabinet, had stayed back in Delhi on Sunday to chalk out a plan to stop it.