Cabinet reshuffle promised by May, says Congress legislator Pattan; suspense over power-sharing continues

During a recent visit to Delhi by a delegation of Congress legislators, Pattan said that AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge assured the issue would be settled by the end of May.

“Around 40 people who won three or four times have submitted a memorandum to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar regarding Cabinet expansion. After that, we met Kharge and discussed the issue for an hour,” he said.

Apart from Kharge, the delegation also met the AICC general secretary in charge of Karnataka, Randeep Surjewala.

“He noted that Cabinet berths were promised to many of us after the completion of two and a half years of Congress government in Karnataka. Though CM was asked to expand the Cabinet in November, he had asked the high command to give him three to four months to complete the exercise,” Pattan said.

Pattan added that changes would be made in various state boards and corporations.

The Cabinet aspirants, he said, will meet again in a couple of days. “We are planning to head to Delhi on May 6 or 7,” Pattan added.

Amid claims from legislators in D K Shivakumar’s camp that he would be made Karnataka chief minister in May, the Deputy Chief Minister declined to comment on the matter.

However, his brother and Bangalore Milk Union president D K Suresh said he was not aware of the same.

Responding to a question on power-sharing, Suresh said it was not the time to discuss the issue. “This is left to the high command. We will abide by any decision of the party leadership,” he said.

A day earlier, MLA and Shivakumar loyalist, Iqbal Hussain, had triggered another round of debate on power sharing by saying that he was confident that Shivakumar would be made CM after May 15.