Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa who is in New Delhi to consult the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) central leadership over Cabinet expansion, said on Thursday night that the list of leaders to be inducted into the Ministry would be finalised at a meeting with Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Friday morning.
On Thursday night he met both BJP national president J.P. Nadda and Mr. Shah. The two meetings, however, lasted only a few minutes.
After the meeting with Mr. Shah, Mr. Yediyurappa told reporters, “Mr. Shah asked me to meet him around 10 a.m. tomorrow [Friday] to finalise the list. I will meet him tomorrow again.” He did not reply to a question on whether the Cabinet expansion will happen on Friday. Though he had also sought time to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi, that meeting is unlikely to happen, sources said.
The Chief Minister has reportedly given both Mr. Nadda and Mr. Shah a list of MLAs he wants to induct into the Cabinet after dropping at least two Ministers. However, the list is not final and will have to accommodate changes suggested by the party leadership, a senior leader said.
Amid rumours of some of the new entrants to the BJP who got elected from Belagavi district not making it to the Ministry, he announced on Wednesday that all the 11 leaders who won the bypolls would be inducted into the Cabinet. At the same press interaction in Belagavi, he announced that senior MLA Umesh Katti would also be made a Minister, and there would be no new Deputy Chief Minister and the three leaders in the post would continue.
Intense lobbying
This is the first time since the Assembly bypoll results that the Chief Minister has been to Delhi, stating that the trip was to consult the party leadership over the Cabinet expansion. This has set off intense lobbying among ministerial aspirants. Even before the Chief Minister could reach Delhi, three leaders had already reached the national capital to lobby for ministerial berths. Yelburga MLA Halappa Achar, Virajpet MLA K.G. Bopaiah, and C.P. Yogeshwar, who played a key role in wooing MLAs from the Congress and the JD(S), have been camping in Delhi, sources said. The name of Mr. Achar, who led the BJP membership campaign in the State, has suddenly cropped up in the list of ministerial probables.
Senior Lingayat MLA Murugesh Nirani, who was recently recommended for the Ministry by a seer publicly, embarrassing the Chief Minister, met Mr. Yediyurappa at his residence in here on Thursday morning. He reportedly apologised for the seer’s remarks and sought to be inducted into the Cabinet. However, Mr. Yediyurappa reportedly did not give him any assurance.
CM calls on Union Ministers
Ahead of the Union Budget, scheduled to be presented on Saturday, Mr. Yediyurappa met Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Thursday. It was a courtesy call and the duo discussed development issues related to the State, sources in the CMO said.
The Chief Minister also met Union Steel Minister Dharmendra Pradhan and requested him to drop the proposal of disinvestment in Visvesvaraya Iron and Steel Plant, Bhadravati, and sought capital investment by the Union government to revitalise the industry. The plant is in the Chief Minister’s home district, Shivamogga, which is represented by his son B.Y. Raghavendra in the Lok Sabha. Mr. Raghavendra was also present during the meeting.
