Karnataka CM Bommai gets Delhi call, cabinet formation before August 4

BENGALURU: Barely a day after he returned from his maiden visit to New Delhi as chief minister, Basavaraj Bommai was summoned by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Central leadership on Sunday, ahead of the much-awaited cabinet formation. 

Bommai, who rushed to Bengaluru’s Kempegowda International Airport to take a flight to Delhi on Sunday evening, told the media that the Cabinet formation will take place before Wednesday. Bommai held consultations with senior BJP leaders, including party national president JP Nadda, during his two-day visit to Delhi after assuming office as chief minister, last week. Bommai, who returned to Karnataka on Saturday night, was asked to rush to Delhi on Sunday. 

“I will meet party president JP Nadda on Monday and finalise names for the cabinet. The expansion will take place in a day or two,” Bommai told reporters at the airport. A section of the party unit in Karnataka, especially those close to leaders in tough competition with Bommai, has expressed concern over the composition of and representation in the cabinet. 

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The party’s central leadership, meanwhile, is said to have decided to end all disgruntlement with a full-fledged cabinet having equitable representation from region, caste, community and even core party leaders and newcomers who jumped from the Janata Dal Secular-Congress coalition to the BJP in 2019. 

​While senior BJP leaders like former Industries Minister and former chief minister Jagadish Shettar have publicly stated that they wouldn’t want to be part of the Cabinet, former ministers in Yediyurappa’s cabinet like R Ashoka, Umesh Katti and Murugesh Nirani are looking forward to holding key posts in the Bommai cabinet. 

Meanwhile, Hiriyur Member of Legislative Assembly K Poornima is expected to be made a minister in place of Nippani MLA Shashikala Jolle, after the latter landed in a controversy following allegations of bribery in egg procurement tenders for anganwadis.