Mudigere MLA Kumaraswamy eyes ministerial berth again

CHIKKAMAGALURU: Mudigere MLA MP Kumaraswamy is keeping his fingers crossed as he lobbies hard for a ministerial berth. During the last cabinet expansion too, he had exerted pressure on Chief Minister B S Yediyuarappa to induct him into the ministry, but did not make it. 

This time, he took a delegation of his followers to the chief minister, and also, going a step ahead, he met state BJP president Nalin Kumar Kateel and RSS leader Kalladka Prabhakar Bhat on Saturday and appealed to them to help him get a chance in the cabinet.

After the last expansion, Yediyurappa, trying to pacify disgruntled MLAs who did no make it to the ministry, had offered the post of chairman to the Karnataka Market Consultants and Agencies Ltd to Kumaraswamy. But he rejected the offer, and instead sought more funds for his flood-affected constituency.

He has staked claim for the ministerial post, saying that among three Scheduled Caste right-hand MLAs in the Assembly and two MPs in Parliament from the state, first-timers have been accommodated, while ignoring him, though he is a three-time MLA.

Of the five MLAs in the district, four are from BJP. D S Suresh and Belli Prakash are juniors, while C T Ravi has resigned from the ministry. He should be inducted to give representation to the district in the cabinet, he argued.