BJP State president Nalin Kumar Kateel, who completed a year in office on Monday, reaffirmed that B.S. Yediyurappa will continue as Chief Minister for the next three years and there was no thinking of leadership change in the party.
He said the 2023 Assembly elections will be led by a collective leadership of both government [B.S. Yediyurappa] and the party [himself]. He was speaking to mediapersons at the BJP head office on Monday.
This statement assumes significance in the wake of National General Secretary (organisation) B.L. Santosh’s visit to the city during which he held several parleys with the State unit of the party for three days.
When quizzed about the impending Cabinet expansion and reshuffle, he refused to be dragged into it and said expansion was the domain of the Chief Minister and it was his prerogative. “He will take a call on when to carry out the exercise and its modalities,” he said.
Denying any dissidence within the party against the incumbent Ministers, he said all Ministers have performed exceedingly well, especially given that they are working amidst crises — drought, floods of 2019, the pandemic, and again floods this year.
Meanwhile, sources close to the Chief Minister said the Cabinet expansion and reshuffle had been put off till the Assembly session is over. “The exercise, when it is carried out, will leave some MLAs disappointed and hence, cannot be risked before an Assembly session,” a strategist close to the Chief Minister M said.
