After dilly-dallying so far the ruling Government led by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has indicated that he would at last expand his Cabinet to douse the fire which has hit the Congress very badly. Siddaramaiah after visiting Delhi two days back got the green signal to expand his Government.
With this the Congress circles in the corridor of power are abuzz that State Congress president G Parameshwara who wants to be appointed as the Deputy Chief Minister would be inducted as a Cabinet Minister ahead of upcoming legislature session at Belagavi.
Congress sources indicated to The Pioneer that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has accepted to reshuffle his Ministry to reduce the internal conflict within the party.
Speculation is rife that party high command has asked Siddaramaiah to opt for an expansion of the Cabinet as well to fill four vacancies, a move which the Chief Minister had stalled successfully despite intense pressure from 20 to 30 legislators who had given a memorandum to party in-charge Digvijay Singh.
According to Congress sources, Ministers who could either be axed or get new portfolios include V. Srinivas Prasad (Revenue), KJ George (Home), Kimmane Ratnakar (Primary and Secondary Education), Qamar-ul-Islam (Wakf and Municipal Administration), MH Ambreesh (Housing), Shamanoor Shivashankarappa (Horticulture), Abhaychandra Jain (Youth Affairs and Sports), and Parameshwara Naik (labour).
As the increased number of rape cases which forced the Siddaramaiah Government to face turbulent times and internal dissent within the party has forced the Chief Minister to reshuffle his Cabinet.
According to a senior Congress leader who is in touch with the high command, said that even though State Congress president G. Parameshwara was demanding that he be appointed as the deputy Chief Minister, he could be persuaded to accept a berth in the Cabinet and assigned two key portfolios such as Home and Industries.
He said “The Congress leadership is keen on bringing the party back on track. Karnataka is very important to the party. The party high command does not want to see any mess up and is not in a position to lose further”. A senior party leader from Karnataka said that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has been asked to go in for reshuffle, as they are worried that Brand Bengaluru is in the news for the wrong reasons.
According to party sources the high command hopes to bring a younger face at helm of the State party unit. A leader said” The rape of minors, and the reactions from the CM and Home Minister adding more fuel to the public anger, has made Congress in Delhi sit up and take note”.
People feel even after 18 months of Congress Ministry in place, nothing seems to be moving forward and no new initiatives have been announced. “Siddaramaiah who is holding too many key portfolios is not able to do justice and people are fed up,” said a four time MlA who wants to be a Minister.
In Karnataka Congress it is a well known fact that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and State Congress president G Parameshwara are at logger heads and rebellion is brewing against appeasement politics of Siddaramaiah.
The issue of IT major Infosys making it public that it was moving out of Bengaluru has dented the image IT capital Bengaluru and this forced Siddaramaiah to announce slew of measures to keep the IT major in Bengaluru. This issue according to sources has irked the Congress high command which has already was upset with the way they have handled the recurring rapes which has seen large scale protests by the public.
According to Congress sources, in case Parameshwara joins the Cabinet, the high command’s choices for the top posts in the State Congress are - Dinesh Gundu Rao (Civil Supplies Minister), Krishna Byre Gowda (Irrigation Minister) and Shankar the ex-chairman.