Amid uncertainty over the matter of Cabinet expansion, Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa on Tuesday declared that former Minister C.P. Yogeshwar would be inducted into it. “We are going to 100% appoint Mr. Yogeshwar as Minister,” he told reporters in Bengaluru.
Mr. Yogeshwar, who was among those who made efforts to woo MLAs from the then JD(S)-Congress coalition to help form the BJP government, had tried in vain to get a ministerial berth earlier.
However, Water Resources Minister Ramesh Jarkiholi, who is being seen as a leader for MLAs who migrated to the BJP from other parties, camped in New Delhi to lobby for Mr. Yogeshwar with the central leaders.
But this attracted criticism from ministerial aspirants from among the BJP’s old-timers, especially those close to the Chief Minister such as his political secretary M.P. Renukacharya. Their main grouse was that Mr. Yogeshwar had lost the Assembly polls. He was later made MLC.
