Bommai will expand his Cabinet soon, announces Yediyurappa

By Shyam Sundar Vattam | NT

Bengaluru: Former CM and veteran BJP leader B.S.Yediyyurappa signalled his continuing hold over his party on Saturday, by revealing that a cabinet expansion was on the cards, possibly as soon as results to the December 10 Legislative Council polls are announced.

Going a step further, he said Chief Minister Basavaraja Bommai will be making a formal announcement on the matter. The bombshell by Yediyurappa who was on a tour of a village in Davangere district on Saturday, and whom everyone had thought had been sidelined by the party was clearly demonstrating his clout with the party high command, who he is said to have persuaded into agreeing to the move as it would pacify a number of his supporters who were upset at being sidelined.

Coming close on the heels of the recent statement by former Water Resources Minister and Gokak MLA, Ramesh Jarkiholi that he would be joining the State Cabinet in the next 15 days - that the State Cabinet would be expanded soon after the announcement of the results of 25 seats in the Upper House which would go to polls on December 10 - Yediyurappa, even after stepping down as CM three to four months ago, has maintained a good rapport with the high command and has been kept in the loop, on developments in Karnataka, ahead of others. In fact, he was the first one to disclose the tieup with Janata Dal (Secular) in the Legislative Council polls and attempts to poach BJP legislators by KPCC President D.K.Shivakumar.

The news of the Cabinet expansion has come as a huge shot in the arm for a number of BJP legislators who had lost hope of gaining entry into the cabinet after the high command had reportedly asked Bommai to put cabinet expansion plans on hold.. But, Yediyurappa has been appealing to the high command about the urgent need for a Cabinet expansion in view of coming elections and to check poaching of the miffed MLAs by Congress.Several BJP MLAs’ have poured out their woes before Yediyurappa and have requested him to impress upon his ‘Shishya’ to do the Cabinet expansion at the earliest to accommodate some of the ministerial aspirants in the cabinet. The former chief minister has a list of supporters and they should be accommodated in the next Cabinet expansion even at the cost of dropping several ministers who have been in power for the last three years.

BJP sources told News Trail that ‘Belagavi sahukar’ agreed to work for the victory of BJP’s Council candidate, Mahantesh Kavatagimath only after getting confirmation about his re-entry into the Council of Ministers. To cement his position, Ramesh had been working hard in the district to woo the electorate to cast one vote for the BJP candidate and the other vote for his brother, Lakhan Jarkiholi who is contesting as an independent candidate.With Yediyurappa’s statement on the Cabinet expansion spreading like wildfire, the senior BJP MLAs are now making a beeline to his house requesting him to put a word to Bommai to accommodate them in the Council of Ministers at least for the next 16 months. In view of the model code of conduct, the CM himself cannot make any statement on the Cabinet expansion as it amounts to violation of code of conduct.