Karnataka CM BS Yediyurappa (Photo | Nagaraja Gadekal, EPS)
Karnataka CM BS Yediyurappa (Photo | Nagaraja Gadekal, EPS)

Cabinet expansion troubles for BSY in Karnataka

Turbulence is ideally a finite phase—brief patches of disturbance in an otherwise smooth glide across blue skies. No such luck for B S Yediyurappa.

Turbulence is ideally a finite phase—brief patches of disturbance in an otherwise smooth glide across blue skies. No such luck for B S Yediyurappa. A battle-scarred general fated to be in the thick of battle, he soldiers on even when fatigue may overtake those who merely report on his tribulations. A nudge here and nod there from the BJP central leaders should have imparted some calm to his tenure, but the law of averages in his case only means no serene ‘happily ever after’.

This time it’s a Cabinet expansion—an act meant to restore order— that has itself fomented trouble. Why was it so important? Because those who switched camps to make a BSY-BJP government possible had to be inducted. As could be predicted, saffron old-timers are upset at being left out. No sooner had BSY contained the discontent against the presence of neo-saffronites in his Cabinet, brouhaha erupted over portfolio allocation. That necessitated another reshuffle in less than 24 hours.

The stakes seem almost a matter of empty prestige. For instance, a minister who was asked to move out of Law and Parliamentary Affairs—to look after Medical Education and Kannada Culture—is threatening to resign. A novel attachment to those dour thankless portfolios. (The onerous task of tending to Kannada Culture has since been taken away from him.) Key portfolios, like Finance, Energy and Bengaluru Development, remain with the chief minister anyway.

Rare is the state that goes without a finance minister: Karnataka is one such. The chief minister obviously thinks it’s best to steer project implementation and financing. Excise has changed nameplates a few times, even as recently as this week. It’s perhaps in the nature of Karnataka politics to be always restive. A detonation at a quarry in Shivamogga—which took quite a few lives and whose sound was apparently heard in three districts—became the metaphor of the day.

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