BANGALORE:� After hard bargaining till the last minute, both factions in the state BJP finally buried their differences, albeit temporarily, and allowed Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda to expand his five-day-old Cabinet.
As many as 12 MLAs from former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa’s camp and 9 MLAs, including Jagadish Shettar, from BJP national general secretary H N Ananthkumar’s group took oath as ministers at a hurriedly arranged swearing-in ceremony at Raj Bhavan on Monday evening. There, however, are no new faces.
The surprising induction was that of V Somanna, whose family members have been indicted by the Lokayukta in its report on illegal mining and hence, was not expected to make it to the Cabinet.
The allocation of portfolios was done late in the evening on Monday.� All 21 MLAs who took oath on Monday, retained the portfolios that they handled during the previous Yeddyurappa government. Chief Minister Sadananda Gowda has retained many of the ministries.
After losing to Gowda in the CM’s race, Shettar’s dream of getting at least the Deputy Chief Minister’s post for himself were also dashed — this time not because of Yeddyurappa, but due to the party’s policy of not having a Deputy Chief Minister in states ruled by it.
According to party sources, Dharmendra Pradhan, party state in-charge, told Shettar and group,� who were vehemently demanding a deputy CM’s post, that under no circumstances would the party compromise on its policy.
Shettar is not the only loser. The Bellary Reddy brothers and Balachandra Jarkiholi groups also suffered a setback as none of their men was inducted in the Cabinet. As a result, they kept away from the swearing-in ceremony. The party is said to have decided to consider their candidature in the next round of expansion as there are still 12 vacancies in the Cabinet.
On Monday, till 2.30 pm, the situation was very fluid as the anti-Yeddyurappa camp was hell bent on getting the Deputy Chief Minister’s post for Shettar. They held a series of meetings with the CM as well as Pradhan. When they realised that there would be no change in the party’s policy, they finally agreed to become ministers.
This apart, the fear of� “action” by Governor H R Bhardwaj also forced the warring groups to patch up.
According to the agreement, both the camps will get 17 Cabinet berths each and will have the freedom to fill up their quota with their choice.
After Monday’s expansion, the Yeddyurappa camp will have four vacancies to fill up,� while the Shettar camp has eight.
Governor Bhardwaj administered the oath of office and secrecy to the new ministers. The oath-taking ceremony got over in just 30 minutes, with four members taking oath at a time.
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