Karnataka Cabinet expansion on August 20

Bengaluru, August 17

Having run the government with a one-man cabinet for 22 days, Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa finally got the go-ahead on Saturday from BJP national president Amit Shah to undertake the exercise on August 20.

“BJP legislative party meeting will be held on Tuesday at 10 am at the conference hall, Vidhan Soudha. The cabinet expansion will take place on the same day post noon,” the Chief Minister tweeted.

Before leaving for Delhi on Thursday, Yediyurappa had said he would hold talks with the party president Amit Shah and finalise the much awaited expansion of his cabinet.

BJP sources told PTI that there was a possibility that 13 ministers would take the oath Tuesday against the approved strength of 34 and that the rest of the positions would be filled later.

The delay was because the party was not able to finalise the names.

Earlier too, Yediyurappa had been to Delhi, but nothing could be ironed out.

The major challenge, party sources said, was the caste equation as there are 39 Lingayat MLAs, to which the chief minister also belongs.

Lingayats are the biggest support base for the BJP.

The Lingayats are followed by the Vokkaligas, the most prominent faces among whom are former R Ashok, Dr C N Ashwath Narayan, C T Ravi and S R Vishwanath.

The party has also to give space to MLAs from the Dalit community, Scheduled Tribes, Brahmins and MLAs from other Backward Communities.

The 17 disqualified MLAs belonging to the previous Congress-JD(S) coalition government might also have to be accomodated in the government.

The Congress and the JD(S) had been flaying the BJP for the inordinate delay in cabinet expansion and accused Yediyurappa of running a one man government.

Yediyurappa was sworn as Chief Minister for a fourth time on July 26.

He alone took the oath succeeding H D Kumaraswamy three days after the Congress-JDS coalition government crumbled under the weight of a rebellion by a big chunk of its lawmakers, when it lost the motion of confidence in the state assembly.

On July 29, the BJP government in Karnataka won the confidence motion, ending the month-long political turbulence in the state. — PTI