Flexing muscles on the occasion of the first anniversary of his government, Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa began spadework for ministerial expansion on Monday by appointing as chairpersons to various boards and corporations those who are unlikely to make it to the Cabinet.
Soon after the completion of a programme organised to mark the government’s first anniversary, the State government released a list of 24 MLAs from the ruling party who have been appointed chairpersons.
However, this paved the way for heartburns among several ministerial aspirants who vented their ire in public. It resulted in the government hurriedly withdrawing four of the appointments within hours of issuing them. This included appointment of Kapu MLA Lalaji Mendon as chairperson of Karnataka Backward Classes Commission which demands certain technicalities in terms of qualification and eligibility. The other three were G.H. Thippa Reddy, (Devaraj Urs Backward Classes Development Corporation), Paranna Ishwarappa Munavalli (Karnataka State Financial Corporation), and Basavarj Dhadesur (Karnataka State Social Welfare Board). Apart of them, Mudigere MLA M.P. Kumaraswamy and Dattatreya Patil Revoor too have expressed displeasure over being given these posts instead of ministerial berths.
Sources in the BJP said that this is an indication of things to come when the Chief Minister takes up ministerial expansion. “Only six berths are vacant in the ministry. Even among these, priority would be given to those who came from other parties such as R. Shankar and either N. Nagaraju (MTB) or A.H. Vishwanath or both. In addition to this, newly nominated MLC C.P. Yogeshwar too is a strong aspirant while those from the party cadre, including Arvind Limbavali and Umesh Katti, cannot be ignored,” said a senior party leader.
“A section of the MLAs is feeling that they are being ignored by the Chief Minister in the last one year. Hence an effort is being made to placate them,” said a party observer, while indicating that it is an exercise by Mr. Yediyurappa to stabilise his own position.