No cabinet expansion
A day after meeting the Congress top brass which conducted a critical review of his performance.
Bengaluru: A day after meeting the Congress top brass which conducted a critical review of his performance in the last six months, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah announced that he had no plans to expand his cabinet which has four vacancies. There are several aspirants for the cabinet berths including former ministers D.K. Shivakumar and Roshan Baig.
The CM is in no mood to risk a ‘counter force’ to him in the cabinet and managed to convince the high command to put off the expansion for now, said sources.
For Congress leaders and workers, there was some consolation—Siddaramaiah announced that he would be filling the vacant posts of chairpersons in state-run boards and corporations. Several young Congress MLAs are likely to be nominated to these powerful bodies.
CM rules out cabinet expansion, plans to appoint state run board chiefs soon
With Chief Minister Siddaramaiah announcing that the central leadership had not discussed the cabinet expansion with him, senior leaders and MLAs who wanted to get into the cabinet, are left disappointed.
However, Siddaramaiah acknowledged that the central leadership had given him the green signal for revamping state-run boards and corporations by accommodating various party workers and young MLAs in these bodies.
On Monday, Siddaramaiah met Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi for the quarterly review of his performance followed by the co-ordination committee meeting at New Delhi.
Sources said it was Siddaramaiah who was reluctant to change the power equations in the cabinet. The party decided to honour his view and once again postponed the expansion. KPCC president, Dr G. Parameshwar is being coaxed by party workers to become Deputy CM while D.K. Shivakumar, Roshan Baig and Veeranna Mattikatti are keen on cabinet berths.