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Many tainted men set to become ministers again

The intense fight for spoils between the warring factions in the ruling has seen seven to eight new faces managing to make their way into the probable list of about 30 ministers to be sworn in along with chief minister designate Jagadish Shettar on Thursday.

In New Delhi, informed sources said the list of ministers will not be made public and the ministerial candidates would be informed over telephone to head directly to Raj Bhavan for the swearing in ceremony slated for 12 noon.

Fair representation to all districts, preference to party loyalists, seniority and clean image seem to have taken a backseat in the power play between the group led by B S Yeddyurappa and the rival faction led by Sadananda Gowda and K S Eshwarappa, in drafting the list of probables.

The two factions seem set to share the number of berths equally–15 each. Now, the Gowda cabinet has 13 ministers who are opposed to Yeddyurappa. The faction fight is fierce over plum portfolios such as revenue and energy.

As per a sharing formula arrived between the two groups, Shettar is likely to retain all the 22 ministers in the Sadananda Gowda Cabinet. R Ashoka, Murugesh Nirani, V Somanna and C P Yogeeshwara, who have cases against them, will continue to enjoy power. Thanks to Yeddyurappa’s clout, two of the three former ministers involved in the porngate episode earlier this year— Lakshman Savadi and C C Patil—have found their way into the list of probables.

Two DyCMs

Eshwarappa and R Ashoka are likely to be deputy chief ministers.
However, In a late night development, the party central leadership in New Delhi is said to be not too keen on making Eshwarappa deputy chief minister. Instead, the national leaders want him to continue as the party’s state unit president.

With constitutional norm capping the number of ministers at 34 (including the chief minister) in Karnataka, two or three cabinet vacancies are likely to remain for the time being, according Eshwarappa. 

New faces

Among the new faces likely to be inducted into the Cabinet include C T Ravi or D N Jeevaraj (both from Chikmagalur district), Appachu Ranjan (Kodagu), Sogadu Shivanna/ Suresh Gowda (Tumkur), Kalakappa Bandi (Gadag), M Chandrappa (Chitradurga), Sunil Vallyapure (Gulbarga), B J Puttaswamy (Bangalore) and Lalaji Mendon (Udupi).

Former ministers Appu Pattanashetti, S K Bellubbi and Aravind Limbavalli are in the race to come back into the ministry. Ravi, Jeevaraj, Shivanna and Ranjan have openly identified themselves with Sadananda Gowda.

At least nine districts, including Chikkaballapur, Yadgir, Raichur and Koppal, are likely to go unrepresented in Shettar’s ministry. Interestingly, Gowda did not mention anyone from his home district of Dakshina Kannada in his wishlist, it said. There will be only one woman in the cabinet - that is Shobha Karandlaje.

The list of ministers, however, is likely to be finalised hours before the swearing-in ceremony, with Shettar and party president Eshwarappa reaching New Delhi late on Wednesday to get the stamp of approval from the party central leadership. Gowda was not invited to attend the meeting, it is said.
Senior leaders of the BJP national leadership along with Shettar and Eshwarappa discussed for over three hours the shape of  the new cabinet.

Shettar and Eshwarappa, held discussions at the residence of BJP general secretary Ananth Kumar for about two hours from 9:30 pm.

They, along with Kumar, met at BJP national president Nitin Gadkari’s residence at about 11:30 pm. They were joined by senior leaders Arun Jaitley and Rajnath Singh. The second round of meeting lasted for over an hour.

While deciding on retaining the outgoing team of ministers, there was no discussion, however, on the president of the state unit of the party.

Earlier in the day, soon after Gowda submitted his resignation to Governor H R Bhardwaj, Shettar, accompanied by Eshwarappa and Yeddyurappa, met the governor to stake claim to form the government. The governor is scheduled to administer the oath of office and secrecy to Shettar and his team, including the two deputy chief minister probables—Eshwarappa and Ashoka—at Raj Bhavan at noon.  

 Soon after the swearing-in cremony, Shettar will hold his first cabinet meeting as chief minister at Vidhana Soudha. The allocation of ministry will be discussed after the swearing-in ceremony, it is said.

Throughout the day, the Yeddyurappa and Gowda camps worked overtime to finalise their wishlist. Loyalists of Yeddyruppa thronged his residence at Dollars Colony, Gowda’s followers made a beeline for his official residence “Anugraha”.

Senior leader Rajnath Singh and Party National General Secretary and state incharge Dharmendra Pradhan met the state top brass through the day at Hotel Ashoka and later at the nearby Kumara Krupa Guest House.