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Updated: May 29, 2019 00:00 IST

Ministerial aspirants started lobbying Tuesday, with chief minister HD Kumaraswamy reportedly planning cabinet expansion or reshuffle in a bid to save the Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) coalition government in Karnataka.

The development came as Kumaraswamy himself swung into action by personally meeting disgruntled legislators, mainly from the Congress and made attempts to pacify them.

Senior Congress legislator, V Muniyappa, who is also political secretary to the Chief Minister, met Kumaraswamy and is said to have expressed his desire to become minister this time. “I have seniority, I have six terms, I have experience both administrative and political, so why can’t I claim?” Muniyappa told reporters in response to a question.

Claiming that he has not made any demand for ministerial post to the CM, he said, “I have not spoken to the CM about it, I have come for a discussion about constituency, but I have asked my party about it.” Meanwhile, Congress’ “troubleshooter” minister D K Shivakumar swung into action to save the coalition government and took independent MLA Nagesh, who was reportedly in touch with BJP, to CM.

Nagesh, after the meeting, made it clear that he was looking for only ministerial post. “When they have got benefited from us, they should do something for us in return, I have spoken to the CM about it. Shivakumar has also said injustice has happened to me, he is the one who brought me to CM,” he said, adding that “Congress will come to a decision and will accommodate me.”