Shettar camp forced to accept party formula in Cabinet formation

BANGALORE: Suspense over when and who would constitute the cabinet of new chief minister D V Sadananada Gowda continued till Monday morning. But once state BJP president K S Eshwarappa and BJP pointsman Dharmendra Pradhan were firm that expansion should happen by evening with old faces, the rebel faction headed by Jagadish Shettar had no other go, but to accept the formula.
While Shettar's camp was demanding creation of two deputy chief ministers' posts, former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa had one point agenda — no deputy CM at any cost. He said no BJP-ruled state has this post and if Karnataka creates it, it would set a precedent. Shettar was forced to accept it. His demand of 20 cabinet berths for his camp was also rejected.
NO HOPE FOR JARKIHOLI
The Balachandra L Jarkiholi camp, with 9 MLAs, too was disappointed. They camp had revolted against Yeddyurappa, resulting in the disqualification of MLAs by the Supreme Court early this year. They rallied behind Shettar hoping that at least two of them would be sworn-in among the first set of ministers. Jarkiholi was shocked when he heard that cabinet would be expanded minus his camp. He and some MLAs planned to protest in front of Shettar's residence.
Shettar, who was in Gowda's residence, got to know of Jarkiholi's plans and summoned him to CM's residence and assured that fresh faces from both the camps would be inducted next week.
ALL IN A HASTE
The party did not want the issue to be dragged too long as KPCC president G Parameshwara on Sunday had warned that they would approach governor H R Bhardwaj in the next couple of days to submit a memorandum on crisis over cabinet expansion. "The cabinet has been expanded in a hurry as the CM got wind of governor preparing a note on the crisis. So the party decided went ahead with inducting 21 old faces," a senior minister said. Gowda left out two ministers from the Yeddyurappa cabinet — C H Vijayashankar and Mumtaz Ali Khan. It's said the party left out Vijayashankar, from the Kuruba community, to balance caste equation while it was not clear why Khan was left out.