Bharatiya Janata Party MLAs aspiring to become Ministers seem to have banded together and are learnt to have held a meeting to lobby for their inclusion. According to sources in the party, the meeting saw the participation of around 10 MLAs. MLA for Surpur Raju Gowda told reporters that the legislators had indeed held a meeting and another one was planned.
Spooked by this, Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa spoke to most of the MLAs who attended the meeting over phone in an attempt to placate them, sources said. He spoke to Mr. Raju Gowda, K. Shivanagouda Naik, G.H. Thippareddy, Basanagouda Patil Yatnal, Anand Mamani, S.A. Ramdas, and Murugesh Nirani, and promised to rehabilitate them and consider them during the next Cabinet expansion.
Major Industries Minister Jagadish Shettar told presspersons in New Delhi on Monday that such lobbying and dissatisfaction was common during any ministerial expansion and there was no crisis as such now. “The Chief Minister has spoken to most of the aspirants over phone. I also spoke to some of them and asked them to wait for their chance,” he said.
He is also learnt to have held a meeting of strategists close to him and discussed with the State intelligence to take stock of the situation. “The MLAs who have come together seem to be more interested in their individual interests. With no force outside the party actively trying to pull down the government, the dissidence is unlikely to precipitate a crisis and is likely to blow over,” one of the strategists said.
While most of these aspirants are opposed to the supposed induction of C.P. Yogeshwar, who was defeated in the 2018 Assembly elections, into the Cabinet, some are making a case for a spot based on caste and regional balance. Mr. Raju Gowda has pitched for a ministry for Kalyana Karnataka region and Kalaburagi district. Mr. Yatnal has said that, given the circumstances of newcomers having to be accommodated, a Cabinet rejig was the only way out. He has also launched an attack on the present Ministers, arguing that non-performers should be dropped. “There are many Ministers who are inaccessible even to MLAs... they don’t even come to the Vidhana Soudha. The performance of Ministers has to be evaluated and non-performers removed,” he said on Monday.
Disqualified MLAs
Meanwhile, A.H. Vishwanath and N. Nagaraj (MTB), disqualified MLAs who were defeated in the December 2019 bypolls, are still making their case to be made Ministers. Mr. Vishwanath, who met Mr. Yediyurappa at his residence in the city on Monday, said that he had not sought a ministry for himself and that it was left to the Chief Minister. However, elsewhere, he argued that Mr. Yediyurappa must consult legal experts and that though disqualified and defeated in bypolls, they could be made Ministers. “Once we filed nominations, the blot [of disqualification] went away,” he argued.
However, sources in the government said that Article 164 (1B) of the Constitution was clear in imposing a ban on legislators disqualified for defection from being appointed Ministers till they are elected to either House of legislature. Thus, these disqualified MLAs can be made Ministers only after they becoming members of the Legislative Council now, sources said. Mr. Nagaraj, who met the Chief Minister on Sunday, told presspersons on Monday that he was confident that Mr. Yediyurappa would stand by his words and fulfil all his promises. Mr. Yediyurappa is learnt to have assured the duo and another disqualified MLA, R. Shankar, that they would be considered for Council membership in June and to be made Ministers subsequently.
