MYSURU: While the tussle continues over selecting the other members of the Chief Minister Siddaramaiah- led cabinet, Bengaluru MLAs may miss the bus this time. In previous Congress and BJP governments, there were at least six to nine ministers from Bengaluru, but the situation has changed now as senior legislators are exerting tremendous pressure on Siddaramaiah and the Congress's high command.
Senior legislators from Bengaluru like Ramalinga Reddy, KJ George and BZ Zameer Ahmed Khan have made it to the first batch of ministers to be sworn-in, but many others including Krishna Byre Gowda, Dinesh Gundu Rao, M Krishnappa, V Shivanna, BK Hariprasad from the Legislative Council, are also in the race.
The previous Congress government had six ministers in the cabinet while the BS Yediyurappa government had accommodated seven with plum posts. Now, 122 of 135 MLAs in Congress are from outside Bengaluru. Belagavi has 11 MLAs, Mysuru nine, Chitradurga five, and many have also won from Kittur and Kalyana Karnataka regions.
This is making it increasingly difficult for the high command to settle for the correct balance. It may also compel the high command to deny half a dozen berths to Bengaluru lawmakers as many MLAs have called on Siddaramaiah and the AICC chief Mallikarjun Kharge, demanding equal representation of communities like Lingayats, Dalits and Muslims in the cabinet who have given overwhelming support to Congress.
From Urs to Hegde, trend changed
There was no one from Bengaluru in the then chief minister Devaraj Urs cabinet as he believed that since the chief minister and cabinet ministers reside in Bengaluru, they are always accessible to Bengalureans. However, he inducted only one minister from Bengaluru to share the Food and Civil supplies department's responsibilities after the Emergency was imposed.
The trend changed after Janata Party headed by Ramakrishna Hegde came to power. Chandrashekar,
Thimme Gowda, Jeevaraj Alva were elected from the city in 1983, including Hegde himself from Basavanagudi in 1985.