Bengaluru: Picking a minister who will be charged with the Bengaluru development portfolio will be more than tricky for CM Siddaramaiah, with the loss of the civic body probably limiting his solo run all this time.
Four days before BBMP polls which the Congress lost, the CM told select journalists that he was going to hand the Bengaluru development portfolio over to someone else as part of a major shake-up of his cabinet, after the civic polls.
However, the cash-rich department and the clout that the minister wields in the business community makes the Bengaluru Development minister, very powerful in the cabinet. Sources are asking whether the CM can pick out one MLA, and make him more important than all the others.
Secondly, adding one more MLA from the city in the cabinet will upset critics in the districts, preparing to ensure that they do not lose the taluk and zilla panchayat elections.
They already feel that Bengaluru is over-represented in the cabinet. One option before the CM is to drop one of the five ministers from the city and induct a new face into the cabinet to take charge of the city development portfolio.
Who will be dropped from the city? Considering the caste and community combination, it will be difficult for Mr Siddaramaiah to drop even one of them. Food and civil supplies minister Dinesh Gundurao, a Brahmin, has a strong connection with the AICC top brass. Mr Siddaramaiah may not touch K.J. George, Ramalinga Reddy, Roshan Baig because of their seniority. Agriculture minister Krishna Byre Gowda, under a cloud after the farmers’ suicide may coast through as he has close links with AICC vice president Rahul Gandhi.
Mr Siddaramaiah is said to favour the induction of fellow Kuruba H.M. Revanna as the city in charge or Mr George, but the apolitical Nandan Nilekani’s name is doing the rounds although the CM is believed to be in two minds given his poor electoral run.
The other name is that of KPCC president Dr G. Parameshwar, whose aspirations to be deputy CM have not come to fruition but may be given two powerful portfolios - Bengaluru development and one more plum portfolio - instead of one.
Most city dads have not cleared Grade 10
Yes! This is exactly what we wanted - for the country's fastest growing tech capital to be run by men and women who haven't graduated, let alone finished school and do not possess the one document that fire all youthful aspirations - a School leaving certificate!
Check the affidavits filed by the BBMP corporator wannabes at the State Election Commission (SEC) and at least a 100 corporators who were elected on Tuesday are Xth standard Fail! A sprinkling of doctors and engineers, some women engineers among them, but brilliance? That’s at a premium.
