KALABURAGI: The 17 MPs instrumental in bringing down the erstwhile coalition government led by HD Kumaraswamy and making BS Yediyurappa chief minister again have not set any deadline to become ministers and such rumours are only media creations, said former minister and BJP leader AH Vishwanath here on Tuesday.
Speaking to the media, Vishwanath said all the 17 leaders who helped Yediyurappa want to be made ministers. "It's because of us that he has become chief minister and the BJP has come to power in the state. All of us want to be accommodated in the cabinet at the earliest," he said.
Asked whether they would revolt if all of them were not made ministers as Yediyurappa had said that it would not be possible to include leaders defeated in the recent byelections to the state assembly, Vishwanath said he does not know what is the hindrance to the BJP high command or to Yediyurappa in making a cabinet expansion. "As of now we have not thought of revolting and it would be
hypothetical if I answer to ‘ifs’, but who knows about the future," he said.
He further said that a few leaders are misinterpreting the judgment of the Supreme Court. "It has clearly said that once we contest the elections, the word ineligible would automatically go even if we were defeated in the elections. There is no hurdle in providing a cabinet berth. We could be made (those who were defeated in the elections) ministers even now as there is a provision in the constitution that anybody could be made minister but should become a member of the Legislative Assembly or Legislative Council within six months," he clarified.
On the protests against the CAA and NRC, Vishwanath said that opposition parties were opposing them only for political reasons.
Vishwanath who was the state unit president of the Janata Dal (S) said the erstwhile coalition government led by Kumaraswamy was anti-people. "Our intention was to bring down that government and we have succeeded in it," he said.