In-Depth: Siddaramaiah’s ‘difficult’ cabinet expansion today

As discussions on the cabinet expansion of the Siddaramaiah government in Karnataka entered the second day here, Congress general secretary and state in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala on Friday said several names have been discussed and the swearing-in will take place on Saturday as earlier. Was declared . Siddaramaiah, who was sworn in as Karnataka chief minister last Saturday, with state unit chief DK Shivakumar as sole deputy chief minister, has been meeting senior party leaders for two days to decide on new ministers .

Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar had reached the national capital separately on Tuesday evening and held a meeting with Surjewala and party organization general secretary KC Venugopal in the party’s war room to discuss the names of the new ministers. On Friday, Siddaramaiah met Congress Parliamentary Party President Sonia Gandhi for the first time after the swearing-in ceremony. Former party president Rahul Gandhi was also present. After meeting the Gandhi family, Siddaramaiah met party chief Mallikarjun Kharge at his residence here. Here in the war room of the Congress, the leaders churned once again. Shivkumar also met the Gandhi family after 15 GRG left the war room.

Speaking to the media after the meeting, Surjewala said: “Whatever decision is taken will be communicated by the only person… Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. He discusses with the party. The party does not decide. The cabinet is decided by the chief minister.” Siddaramaiah has discussed.” We have left it to them to decide who to include in the cabinet. The high command only discusses various issues in the interest of the party. “I reiterate again that the decision of who to induct in the cabinet is the Chief Minister. And I have been told by him (Siddaramaiah) that he will be swearing in the next ministers tomorrow, and thus more details can be given only by him .

Meanwhile, after meeting Sonia Gandhi, Shivkumar said that everything is fine. Asked about the cabinet expansion on Saturday, he said, “I hope so.” Meanwhile, both Rahul Gandhi and Venugopal reached the Congress president’s residence to discuss the names of new cabinet ministers in Karnataka. Besides Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar, eight more ministers – G Parameshwara, KH Muniyappa, KJ George, MB Patil, Satish Jarkiholi, Priyank Kharge, Ramalimga Reddy and BZ Zameer Ahmed Khan were sworn in in Bengaluru on Saturday. However, no portfolio has been allotted to any of them as of now. A party source said the Congress will have to strike a balance in cabinet allocation as it needs to balance the demands of different communities. According to party sources, in the last two days, 20 to 24 names have been discussed for the new cabinet, in which representatives of every community are included.

The source said party leaders from the Lingayat community like Ishwar Khandre, Lakshmi Hebbalkar, Shivanand Patil, HK Patil, SS Mallikarjuna, Sharanbasappa Darsanapur, Dr Sharan Prakash Patil are likely to be included in the cabinet. Dr. HC Mahadevappa, a Dalit, K. Venkatesh Cheluvarayaswamy and Krishna Byregowda, both from the Vokkaliga community, and Byrathi Suresh, a leader from the Kuruba community, are also likely to take oath as new ministers in the state cabinet. The source said Rahim Khan is likely to be the only new Muslim minister, while names from the Uppara community include Putta Ranga Shetty, Dr MC Sudhakar, KN Rajanna, a leader from the ST community, Santosh Lad, Madhu Bangarappa, Mankala Vaidya, Shivraj Tangadgi. Are. , RB Thimmapur, Nagendra and Boseraju are also discussed.