BENGALURU: With Karnataka giving the BJP the highest number of MPs from South India, party leaders from the state are hopeful of at least three lawmakers from Karnataka making it to the next Union Cabinet.
Though the BJP top brass has the Herculean task of accommodating alliance partners in the next Cabinet, Karnataka is likely to get a better share.
Of the 240 seats that the BJP has won in the recent Lok Sabha elections, 17 were from Karnataka. With this, the number of aspirants is also higher.
In the Modi 2.0 government, Karnataka had four Union Ministers — Pralhad Joshi, Shobha Karandlaje, A Narayanswamy, and Bhagwanth Khuba. While Narayanaswamy did not contest this time, Khuba lost from Bidar. BJP leaders in Karnataka are hopeful of Joshi, a seasoned minister, entering the Cabinet this time as well.
BJP sources said that, going by the caste equation, a Lingayat leader from Karnataka is expected to be made a minister. “We have two big leaders, including former CMs Jagadish Shettar and Basavaraj Bommai... Shettar has a better chance. However, BY Raghavendra, son of party veteran BS Yediyurappa, is unlikely to get a Cabinet post as his brother is heading the Karnataka BJP,” said a party insider.
Other names that are doing the rounds include PC Mohan who has been winning from Bangalore Central since 2009.
On Wednesday, state JDS president and former CM HD Kumaraswamy attended the NDA meeting in New Delhi, chaired by Narendra Modi. JDS, which contested in an alliance with the BJP, won two of the three seats it contested. Kumaraswamy, too, expressed his desire to be part of the Cabinet, said sources. The name of Dr CN Manjunath, brother-in-law of Kumaraswamy, is also doing the rounds. Dr Manjunath, a renowned cardiologist, defeated incumbent MP DK Suresh from Bangalore Rural.
During a campaign in the run-up to the polls, former PM HD Deve Gowda had said that his son-in-law, Dr Manjunath, had treated lakhs of people and helped the poor, and hence, national leaders want him in the Union Cabinet.
BJP sources, however, are skeptical as the party has to accommodate all their alliance party lawmakers in the Cabinet. Also, there are a few Rajya Sabha members who will have to be made ministers.