No portfolios yet but Shivakumar and Patil eye water resources ministry; Muniyappa and Parameshwar vie for Revenue
2 min read
Bengaluru: With no sight of cabinet expansion even after the Congress claiming stake to form the government almost a week ago, most of the ministerial aspirants are camping in Delhi lobbying hard through their leaders.
Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar is eyeing for the Water Resources portfolio which is also said to be demanded by minister M B Patil. Patil had served as the Water Resources minister during the previous Congress government.
Sources in the party claimed that former minister and Devanahalli MLA K H Muniyappa is keen on the Revenue ministry. But he is finding stiff competition from former deputy chief minister G Parameshwara. It is reported that Parameshwara may be handed over the medium and large industries portfolio. Chamarajpet legislator Zameer Ahmed is demanding housing ministry and Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has reportedly promised him the same.
The party high command is walking the tightrope with regard to allocating the portfolio that is in tune with social justice. For, the lone member from Kunchitiga-Vokkaliga community member T B Jayachandra and Jain community’s lone MLA and former chief minister Dharam Singh’s son Dr Ajay Singh are lobbying hard for the ministerial portfolios. Besides, there are nine Lingayat legislators who are also hoping to get portfolios. Lingayat legislators include Dr Sharan Prakash Patil, Laxman Savadi, Laxmi Hebbalkar, Eshwar Khandre, Shivananda Patil, S S Mallikarjun, Vinay Kulkarni, G S Patil and Basavaraj Rayareddy, who are keeping their fingers crossed.
Apart from all this, there are veteran leaders, whom the party cannot afford to ignore. They include R V Deshpande, Dinesh Gundurao, K N Rajanna, Bhairathi Suresh, Raghavendra Hitnal, Santosh Lad, D Sudhakar and others.
It may be recalled here that former chief minister Basavaraj Bommai had criticized the new Congress government over dragging its feet on cabinet expansion. On Wednesday, Deputy Chief Minister Shivakumar left for Delhi much before Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and held a 45-minute discussion with AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge.
Already, the newly elected governments have 10 ministers with 8 legislators taking oath along with the chief minister and deputy chief minister. The party now has to allocate 23 posts and many hopefuls are camping in Delhi. If the list is finalised by the high command the new ministers may take oath in a day or two, claim party sources.
– Team Mysoorunews
Mysooru News
