BENGALURU: Two politically dominant castes put together make up only 32 per cent of the State’s total population.MLCs make up 15.5 per cent of the cabinet, some allege that a few regions have been decieved
Ten Lingayats, including the chief minister and seven Vokkaligas in BS Yediyurappa’s 33-member cabinet make up for more than half of the ministerial cabinet with 51.51 per cent. The two politically dominant castes put together only makeup 32 per cent of the State’s total population. The over-representation of the two castes have created restlessness among BJP workers and leaders. But the grouse over imbalance is not limited just to castes. Regional representation has also been an issue with many leaders including the likes of SA Ramadass and MP Renukacharya alleging their respective regions have been deceived.
Eight of the cabinet ministers are from Bengaluru and five from Belagavi region making up 39.9 per cent of the cabinet. At the crux of the skewered regional representation as well as caste representation is BS Yediyurappa and the BJP’s commitment to MLAs of Congress-JDS coalition who jumped ships to bring the saffron party to power in Karnataka in 2019.
“Apart from the regional and caste imbalance, the cabinet is also made up of five MLCs. This is unheard of in the recent past. People who have lost elections have been made ministers while those who fought and won seats are made to wait,” exclaimed a senior BJP National Executive team functionary. With the induction of CP Yogeshwar, MTB Nagaraj and R Shankar on Wednesday, the cabinet has five MLCs, including Deputy Chief Minister Laxman Savadi.
The MLCs make up 15.5 per cent of the cabinet. Interestingly, 12 of the 33 ministers i.e., 36.36 per cent of the cabinet, is comprised of those legislators who jumped ships to the BJP from the Congress-JDS coalition government in 2019. All of the 12 MLAs have been given cabinet berths as a means for BS Yediyurappa to keep up his promise when they agreed to quit the coalition and join the BJP.