Twenty days after he was sworn in as Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa got the go ahead from the party high command and is all set to expand his Cabinet on Tuesday. After a humiliating and unprecedented political drama in the State, Yediyurappa is expected to induct 16 Ministers which include one independent candidate who supported the saffron party. Much to the embarrassment and humiliation to Yediyurappa, the BJP high command has finally given go ahead to expand the one man Cabinet on their terms and conditions.
BJP sources said after this exercise another Cabinet expansion will take place based on the list cleared by the party high command.
Yediyurappa took oath on July 26 as the Chief Minister of the State has to face the wrath of flood fury and single handed worked in the hour of crisis without any Cabinet Minister. He is the first Chief Minister in the State to hold the three Cabinet meetings in 20 days without any Ministers in his Cabinet.
Yediyurappa who was the architect of operation Lotus has decimated the coalition led by the Congress and the JD(S) to take the hot seat and made Karnataka the door to his party BJP second time to enter south India.
Because of Yadiyurappa’s mass leadership and Lingayat community the saffron party had to dilute the age factor in the party rule book and made him the Chief Minister with many riders and humiliation.
Yediyurappa after getting clearance now has to face the pressure from Lingayat community and their mutts for plum posts in the Cabinet. He has also to take the demands of the Congress and JD(S) rebels who have sacrificed their posts to install the BJP Government. Yediyurappa literally is walking on the razor edge with pressure from high command and also from other groups.
The saffron party sure to face the demands of the rebel MLAs who’s mutiny helped bring down Congress–JDs government in the State. Since they have been disqualified, and are precluded from contesting the election (as and when they are held), the BJP is taking it easy on the issue. But if the court takes a different view from that of the Speaker, this equilibrium will be shattered for the BJP.
However, with no decision yet by the Supreme Court on 17 disqualified Congress-JD(S) MLAs, whose resignation from the Assembly paved the way for the BJP to gain power, the Chief Minister has no immediate compulsion to accommodate them.
Yediyurappa on Monday confirmed that he would expand his cabinet on Tuesday. “The cabinet expansion will take place between 10.30 and 11.30 am tomorrow. I have already written a letter to the Governor in this regard. I have asked Chief Secretary to make all arrangements,” he said. “By Monday afternoon we will get a clear instruction on who all to be inducted, I have held discussions with Amit Shah and other leaders. We will get to know by the afternoon,” Yediyurappa had said soon after his return from Delhi on Saturday night.
Asked about the number of ministers likely to be inducted on Tuesday, he said, “13 to 14 people are likely to be inducted in to the Cabinet in the first phase, there may be plus or minus one or two, we have now recommended 13 to 14 of them.”
Amid pressure from within, Opposition parties, the Congress and JD(S) too had hit out at the BJP over the delay in cabinet expansion, and had even raised questions about the Government’s “existence”.
The Congress had even said that Yediyurappa’s one-man Cabinet administration “resembled President’s rule.”
“Is this what BJP means by ‘Minimum Government’? A cabinet without cabinet ministers? Will @BSYBJP wake up & stop our state being mocked across the country,” the Congress had tweeted. “Karnataka needs a government. If @BSYBJP can’t form one, he should step down,” it had said.
