14 in, 14 out: Siddaramaiah prevails on reshuffle
Kharge's son, Kagodu Thimmappa among those to be sworn in today.
Bengaluru: In a major victory for Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Opposition leader in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge allowed his two men to be dropped from the ministry, giving Mr Siddaramaiah a free hand to run the government for the next two years with his own team.
Mr Siddaramaiah’s victory came after his plan was backed by both the old guard that's party senior leader Ahmed Patel and AICC general secretary in charge of Karnataka Digvijay Singh as well as the new, party vice-president Rahul Gandhi.
Mr Siddaramaiah reportedly received the go-ahead from the Congress high command to drop as many as 14 ministers and induct an equal number in a major cabinet reshuffle scheduled for Sunday.
Those whose heads are on the block include revenue minister V. Srinivas Prasad, housing minister M.H. Ambareesh and small industries minister Satish Jarkiholi. The new inductees into the cabinet include Speaker Kagodu Thimmappa and Congress leader, Priyank Kharge among others, according to party sources.
“We discussed all those to be dropped and those to be inducted with AICC president Soniaji and Rahulji and convinced them. The high command has authorised me to go ahead with the reshuffle," Mr Siddaramaiah told reporters.
The fact that the high command has agreed to his proposal to drop 14 ministers and also okay the list prepared by him without many changes has come as a shot in the arm for the chief minister in the wake of the impression gaining ground of late that the party leadership has lost confidence in him after a series of defeats in various elections.
Having been instructed by Mrs Sonia Gandhi to evolve a consensus on the cabinet reshuffle, Mr Siddaramaiah and KPCC president Dr G. Parameshwara held a meeting with various leaders at the Karnataka Bhavan Friday night in Delhi. The Congress president is also believed to have consulted Mr Kharge before agreeing to the chief minister’s proposal. The new ministers will be sworn in at a ceremony in Raj Bhavan Sunday afternoon.