Just when the ruling Janata Dal (Secular)-Congress coalition was putting behind dissidence among its legislators over Cabinet expansion, another threat of discord has surfaced. The parties are likely to put off the much-awaited Cabinet expansion in the wake of the announcement of byelections to vacant Assembly and Lok Sabha seats.
While Cabinet aspirants were hopeful of a possible expansion in mid-October, the announcement of bypolls to two Assembly constituencies (Ramanagaram and Jamkhandi) and three parliamentary constituencies (Shivamogga, Mandya and Ballari) has thrown a spanner in the works. Though there has been no clear communication from the Congress yet on the status of Cabinet expansion, party sources say discussions are under way on putting off the exercise till after the bypolls, as any expansion now could have an adverse effect on party’s nominees. However, a source close to former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah acknowledged that Cabinet expansion would not take place this month.
Firing the first salvo on Sunday, B.C. Patil, three-time Congress legislator from Hirekerur and one of the contenders for a Cabinet berth, expressed ire at the attempts to repeatedly postpone Cabinet expansion. Taking to Twitter, he said: “Dragging the expansion of Cabinet in Karnataka is an act of insult to legislators, killing democracy, upholding dictatorship in the name of party.” He even tagged Congress president Rahul Gandhi, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president Dinesh Gundu Rao, Siddaramaiah, and Deputy Chief Minister G. Parameshwara.