Karnataka: Finally, M Krishnappa gets his Cabinet berth

Bengaluru: Vijayanagar MLA M. Krishnappa,  is set to be rewarded for his ‘contributions’ to the Congress party with a Cabinet berth on Ganesh Chaturthi day on Monday. He may land himself the housing portfolio which was held by actor-politician Ambareesh before he was dropped from the ministry. Mr Krishnappa’s name was finalised on Saturday by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and AICC vice-president Rahul Gandhi. Ministers of state A. Manju and Vinay Kulkarni  are likely to get Cabinet rank.     

Berth race: Krishnappa pips Yogeshwar
Finally, Lord Ganesha seems to have smiled on two-time MLA from Vijayanagar Assembly constituency, M. Krishnappa, who is all set to be sworn in as minister on Monday.

In a sudden political development, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah decided to expand his Council of Ministry by inducting Mr Krishnappa and is also likely to promote two of his minister of state colleagues  — A. Manju and Vinay R. Kulkarni — as cabinet ministers.

‘Layout Krishnappa’ as he is popularly known, is tipped to become Housing minister and is likely to be Mandya district in-charge minister, a post which was held by Sandalwood film star turned politician, Ambreesh till a couple of months ago.

Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, a senior leader from New Delhi said, “This was a sudden development as no one knew about this till late evening on Saturday when Mr Siddaramaiah had met AICC vice-president, Rahul Gandhi to discuss the appointment of chairmen to state-run boards and corporations. This has come as shocker to many of us including Energy minister, D.K. Shivakumar, who had succeeded in preventing Mr Krishnappa from getting sworn in as minister about three months ago. Mr Krishnappa who seems to have played his cards well this time, succeeded in getting his name cleared at the highest level in Delhi by Sunday morning.”

Mr Krishnappa was tipped to be minister last time when Mr Siddaramaiah overhauled his cabinet three months ago by dropping 14 of his colleagues. Meanwhile, a source in the CM’s office confirmed that Mr Krishnappa, who is a real estate magnate with properties in and around Bengaluru, is likely to be sworn in as minister on Ganesh Chaturthi and Teacher’s Day (Monday) at Raj Bhavan.

A science graduate (B.Sc) from Bangalore University, he failed to make it to the cabinet during the last reshuffle on June 19, 2016. It may be recalled that after the berth was denied to him, supporters of the MLA stormed into Vijayanagar metro station and created a ruckus. Ruling party councillors of Vijayanagar and Govindrajnagar wards and members of the Congress block committee threatened to resign if Mr Siddaramaiah did not give a berth to Mr Krishnappa.

Mr Krishanppa, who also served as MLC during 2000-06, belongs to the Vokkaliga community. Currently there are four Ministers belonging to the dominant community — D. K. Shivakumar, T. B. Jayachandra, Krishna Byre Gowda and A. Manju.

The source added that after two Vokkaliga ministers — M.H. Ambareesh and Kimmane Ratnakar — were dropped from the cabinet, there was hectic lobbying among Vokkaliga MLAs for these berths. The other Vokkaliga leaders who were in the fray were C. P. Yogeshwar (Channapatna), K. Sudhakar (Chikkaballapur), S.T. Somashekar (Yeshwanthpur) and Deputy Speaker in Assembly, N. H. Shivashankar Reddy (Gauribidanur) and former MP Ramya. But Mr Krishnappa’s name got cleared at the last minute, after considering his ‘contributions’ to the party.

Mr Krishnappa’s son Priyakrishna is also MLA and represents neighbouring Govindarajanagar constituency in Bengaluru City. There are two vacancies in the 34-member Ministry. The vacancies occurred after K.J. George resigned after a court in Madikeri ordered Karnataka Police to file an FIR against him in connection with the suicide of Deputy SP MK Ganapathy. With the induction of Mr Krishnappa, there would be just one vacancy.