BENGALURU: The dream of a cabinet berth now seems a little less distant for ministerial aspirants as Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa seems to have finalised the ministry expansion after after meeting newly elected BJP president JP Nadda.
The cabinet expansion exercise is halfway through, pending approval from Union Home Minister Amit Shah. Yediyurappa who was scheduled to meet Nadda and Shah on Thursday and return to Bengaluru on Friday morning, will now return in the evening after meeting Shah on Friday.
Sources privy to the meeting between Nadda and Yediyurappa said the BJP chief has cleared the path for cabinet expansion but both want to run the list of aspirants through Amit Shah. If everything goes according to Yediyurappa’s plans, Karnataka may have new ministers by next week.
Given his busy campaign schedule for the Delhi assembly polls, Shah could not meet Yediyurappa to discuss the expansion on Thursday. After a brief talk late on Thursday night, the two leaders decided to finalise the list of ministers to be inducted on Friday afternoon.
Speaking to reporters late on Thursday night Yediyurappa reiterated that there will be no more deputy CMs. Party sources suggested that Yediyurappa has pushed to accommodate 10 of the newly-elected MLAs and drop three incumbent ministers to make space for new faces in the cabinet.
"It has been a long time since I came to New Delhi. I will be meeting Dharmendra Pradhan, Nirmala Sitharaman. I wasn’t able to met JP Nadda after he became the BJP chief and will meet him along with Amit Shah and then return to Bengaluru tomorrow (Friday). We will discuss cabinet expansion. We will do as they suggest, whether it is expansion or reshuffle," Yediyurappa told reporters in New Delhi.
During his meeting with Pradhan, the CM sought the revival of Visvesvaraya Iron and Steel Plant at Bhadravathi. He insisted that the Union Government or Steel Authority of India (SAIL) should invest in the plant.
Yediyurappa’s son BY Raghavendra is the MP from Shivamogga. Raghavendra, in his election campaign, had assured to reopen the plant and ensure employment to the local population. Later, the CM, accompanied by his son, met Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman.
Even as Yediyurappa was in New Delhi, many cabinet aspirants like CP Yogeshwar, K G Bopaiah, Halappa Achar were said to have camped in the national capital. Aspirants like Murugesh Nirani visited Yediyurappa before he boarded a flight while newly-elected MLA Ramesh Jarkiholi met with his brother and long-time BJP leader Balachandra Jarkiholi to hold discussions at a private hotel on Thursday.
The senior Jarkiholi is said to be disappointed over Yediyurappa’s remarks on there being no plans of changing or adding any more Deputy Chief Minister posts.
“People of Karnataka know that Yediyurappa will not go back on his words. I am of that belief too. Whatever be the decision of the party, we well abide by it,” said Mahalakshmi Layout MLA Gopalaiah, who resigned from the JDS, got disqualified and joined the BJP to win the seat again.
The mood of most of the 11 newly-elected MLAs seems to be of hope. "We were united when we resigned and thereafter too. Now we are all members of the BJP and it isn’t right to indulge in ‘groupism’ now. Nobody will be left behind. Those who didn’t win the bypolls (AH Vishwanath and MTB Nagaraj) will also be given positions, but there may be a slight delay due to technicalities," said Hirekerur MLA BC Patil. He too is confident of landing a cabinet berth.