Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah
Bengaluru: A large contingent of legislators, including MLCs, is gearing up to meet the AICC leadership in Delhi in a day or two with a request to let chief minister Siddaramaiah go for a full-fledged revamp of his Cabinet.
Siddaramaiah had been postponing the exercise as the party leadership was preoccupied with one election or the other. The Cabinet berth aspirants believe this is the right time to step up pressure for a Cabinet recast as bypolls in the state are over and the state’s Congress regime is set to complete three years next month.
Also Read: Pressure mounts for cabinet rejig in Karnataka, Congress MLAs to meet high command in Delhi
The long list of aspirants includes MLAs Ashok Pattana, Puttaranga Shetty, Subba Reddy, Priya Krishna, Rizwan Arshad, BR Patil, Laxman Savadi, Vinay Kulkarni, NA Haris, and MLC Saleem Ahmed.
They are planning to meet AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge and general secretaries KC Venugopal and RS Surjewala, and if possible, Rahul Gandhi, and pitch their case for early recast of the Cabinet. The CM has said more than once that he was ready to carry out the exercise the moment he got a green signal from the party leadership.
The party has delayed a decision amid hectic lobbying by a section of MLAs to become ministers, and parallel efforts by Dy CM DK Shivakumar’s followers to push his case for the CM’s post.
There were also speculations that Shivakumar got the reshuffle exercise delayed, last year, as any such move would block his chances of becoming the CM.
Also Read: Congress set to lose Karnataka bypolls as per govt intelligence report: BJP
Siddaramaiah had been particularly keen on filling two vacant Cabinet positions caused by the resignation of scheduled tribe ministers B Nagendra and KN Rajanna. Any prolonged delay will hurt his image cultivated over the years as a champion of Ahinda (acronym for minorities, backward classes and Dalit) voters.
The CM has been doing a tight rope for nearly three years now, managing aspirants and giving hopes that they might get a chance at the forthcoming reshuffle.
Siddaramaiah had been postponing the exercise as the party leadership was preoccupied with one election or the other. The Cabinet berth aspirants believe this is the right time to step up pressure for a Cabinet recast as bypolls in the state are over and the state’s Congress regime is set to complete three years next month.
Also Read: Pressure mounts for cabinet rejig in Karnataka, Congress MLAs to meet high command in Delhi
The long list of aspirants includes MLAs Ashok Pattana, Puttaranga Shetty, Subba Reddy, Priya Krishna, Rizwan Arshad, BR Patil, Laxman Savadi, Vinay Kulkarni, NA Haris, and MLC Saleem Ahmed.
They are planning to meet AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge and general secretaries KC Venugopal and RS Surjewala, and if possible, Rahul Gandhi, and pitch their case for early recast of the Cabinet. The CM has said more than once that he was ready to carry out the exercise the moment he got a green signal from the party leadership.
The party has delayed a decision amid hectic lobbying by a section of MLAs to become ministers, and parallel efforts by Dy CM DK Shivakumar’s followers to push his case for the CM’s post.
There were also speculations that Shivakumar got the reshuffle exercise delayed, last year, as any such move would block his chances of becoming the CM.
Also Read: Congress set to lose Karnataka bypolls as per govt intelligence report: BJP
Siddaramaiah had been particularly keen on filling two vacant Cabinet positions caused by the resignation of scheduled tribe ministers B Nagendra and KN Rajanna. Any prolonged delay will hurt his image cultivated over the years as a champion of Ahinda (acronym for minorities, backward classes and Dalit) voters.
The CM has been doing a tight rope for nearly three years now, managing aspirants and giving hopes that they might get a chance at the forthcoming reshuffle.
