BENGALURU: Senior Congress leader and Ramdurg MLA Ashok Pattan, who is also chief whip in the Assembly, said here on Friday that there will be a cabinet reshuffle after two-and-a-half years and he is likely to become a minister.
His statement gives credence to a likely formula that has been worked out by the Congress high command, where Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is expected to give up his post after two-and-half-years, allowing Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar to assume the position to complete the rest of the five-year term.
Pattan, however, said he does not know whether there will be a change in the chief minister’s post or just a reshuffle of ministries after two-and-a-half years. Pattan, who was in Siddaramaiah’s camp before the Assembly polls in the state, said the high command would decide on any change in the chief minister’s post.
“I would have got a ministerial post as I am a senior, but missed it because of the caste equation in forming the cabinet. I have requested our leaders to take my experience into account and make me a minister,” he told reporters at Vidhana Soudha.
He regretted that he missed the bus despite his father being a freedom fighter and his mother a former Congress MLA. “That is because I don’t have a godfather now. You need a godfather whichever field it is,” he commented. Pattan, who is a Lingayat, said he has not been made a minister, though he had worked with Energy Minister KJ George during their Youth Congress days.
“All Congress leaders, including (AICC general secretary) Randeep Singh Surjewala, told me that I would get a ministerial position. I have expressed my feelings to Siddaramaiah, Shivakumar, Surjewala, KC Venugopal, and all the others,” he said. “I will stay in the party regardless of me getting the post,” he added.