india

Updated: Aug 18, 2019 18:41 IST

Nearly three weeks after being sworn in as the Chief Minister of Karnataka for the fourth time, B S Yediyurappa is likely to get cabinet colleagues on Tuesday, August 20, after party president Amit Shah gave the green signal. The Bharatiya Janata Party said that it had called for a meeting of its legislative party on Tuesday morning and that new ministers would be sworn in by afternoon.

Both the opposition parties in the state, Congress and Janata Dal (Secular) had repeatedly targeted the state government for not having a cabinet with the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee saying, “is this what the BJP means by ‘minimum government’? A cabinet without cabinet ministers? Will @BSYBJP wake up and stop our state being mocked across the country?”

The delay in cabinet formation is believed to have happened as the BJP high command was busy piloting crucial bills in Parliament and later due to the devastating floods particularly across Northern and Coastal Karnataka that further impeded the process. However, with Yediyurappa finally getting the nod from the high command, about 15-17 ministers are expected to be sworn-in in the first tranche, though the state can have a maximum of 33 ministers apart from the CM.

Yediyurappa has a tough task in hand trying to maintain a region and caste balance while forming the ministry. Unlike its predecessor, the Congress-JD(S) coalition, the BJP government gets the bulk of its MLAs from Northern and Coastal Karnataka. Also Lingayats – Yediyurappa’s kinsmen and the single largest caste group in the state at around 17% – who have overwhelmingly stood by the saffron party, would expect to be rewarded.

A senior BJP leader who did not want to be identified said, “Almost a third of our MLAs are Lingayats with Dalits being the next biggest block. Vokkaligas who are a powerful community also need to be given adequate representation. Apart from that, at some point we will have to reward the rebel MLAs of Congress and JD(S) who sacrificed their seats to ensure our government comes into existence. So it will be a delicate balancing act which is why we will be keeping quite a few slots empty to ensure no dissidence breaks out.”

Party sources also indicated that unlike in the past there would be no deputy CM’s post. Several senior leaders including former CM Jagadish Shettar, former Deputy CMs R Ashoka and K S Eshwarappa apart from party heavyweights like Govind Karjol, Umesh Katti, V Somanna, B Sriramulu and Suresh Kumar are said to be in the running for a cabinet post. Also the party may provide a token representation in the cabinet from the upper house of the legislative council by inducting a member or two into the cabinet.

Senior political analyst Mahadev Prasad said, “The cabinet expansion will have to be a careful exercise so as not to upset any group within the party, which is why they are likely to keep nearly half the slots empty. What will be interesting to watch is whether any of the rebel MLAs who resigned and helped topple the coalition government is likely to be rewarded immediately. However, it will be inevitable that the expansion will leave some dissatisfied as the number of aspirants are more.”

Meanwhile, CM Yediyurappa also announced that the state government has transferred the alleged telephone tapping case to the Central Bureau of Investigation since a large number of requests to this effect including from Congress Legislature Party leader Siddaramaiah had come. However, the former CM while welcoming the move to hand over the telephone tapping investigation to the CBI also demanded that the Central Investigative Agency also look into allegations of ‘Operation Kamala’ which the opposition parties allege was initiated to lure MLAs to resign and topple the coalition government.