BENGALURU: Even as he has conveyed to cabinet aspirants that the D-day for expansion is January 31, Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa will first consult with newly-elected BJP President Jagat Prakash Nadda on January 30. Torn between keeping up his promise of accommodating all 11 defectors-turned-newly-elected MLAs and the Central leadership’s proposal of inducting not more than seven-nine of the lot, Yediyurappa will hold a final round of discussions with Nadda. Former BJP chief and Union Home Minster Amit Shah is also expected to be a part of the discussion.
“Yediyurappa has decided to go with an open mind. He wants to accommodate all 11 legislators, but the high command is keen on only about seven-nine of them being inducted. They want Yediyurappa to keep up the party’s promise to all defecting MLAs, but not all of them were promised cabinet berths — only nine were assured of a berth,” pointed out a source close to Yediyurappa. BJP insiders suggest that Ramesh Jarkiholi was promised of a ministerial berth- even the Deputy Chief Minister post- if he managed to gather more MLAs to follow suit. Mahesh Kumathalli and Shrimant Patil, who followed in Jarkiholi’s steps, were not promised a berth. While defectors like Sudhakar, ST Somashekhar, Narayana Gowda, Gopalaiah, Byrathi Basavraj, BC Patil and Anand Singh were promised to be accommodated into the cabinet, Shivaram Hebbar was not. The Central leadership wants Yediyurappa to keep up the party’s side of the bargain instead of overcompensating, say sources.
“I believe in the CM, and there are chances that expansion will happen before January 31,” Dr K Sudhakar, MLA Chikkaballapur, told TNIE. He added that there was no pressure on Yediyurappa over the allocation of portfolios. In his discussion with Nadda on Thursday, Yediyurappa is also expected to finalise portfolios for newly-inducted ministers. For now, Yediyurappa has been asked to consider just seven-nine of the newly-elected MLAs and to consider prominent MLAs such as Umesh Katti, Sunil Kumar, CM Udasi, Arvind Limbavali, Halady Srinivas Shetty and Murugesh Nirani, as well as youngsters such as Preetham Gowda and Dattatreya Patil Revoor.