BELAGAVI: After lobbying hard in New Delhi for cabinet berths to legislators from his camp, Water Resources Minister Ramesh Jarkiholi has abruptly changed stance. He now says he will abide by any decision taken by Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa on the induction of legislators into the cabinet or dropping some of them.
However, he said he does not have any idea of whether the CM will indeed drop some ministers. In the backdrop of reports that some ministers in the cabinet, especially from Belagavi district, may be dropped to make way for new faces, Jarkiholi said in Chikkodi on Saturday that he has no objection to it even if someone from Belagavi district is removed.
He said he will accept the party’s leadership’s decision on expansion or reshuffling of the state cabinet. Just two weeks ago, Jarkiholi visited New Delhi at least thrice and met the party’s top leaders, including BJP national president J P Nadda, in an attempt to exert pressure on the party high command for the inclusion of some legislators from the group which had switched to BJP from the Congress and the JDS along with him.
According to sources, Jarkiholi had also pushed for the inclusion of C P Yogeshwar as Deputy CM besides getting some other legislators, including H Vishwanath and R Shankar into the cabinet. Sources indicated that Jarkiholi is confident that the party leadership will accommodate at least some of his associates this time to avoid any possible rift.