Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his deputy D K Shivakumar will hold discussions with All India Congress Committee (AICC) state in-charge general secretary Randeep Surjewala on Tuesday to carry out some administrative changes in the government, including the appointment of MLAs as chairmen of boards and corporations. Surjewala arrived in Bengaluru on Tuesday afternoon ahead of the meeting. “There will be some discussions regarding party issues with the in-charge general secretary (Surjewala). There will also be discussions on appointments to boards and corporations,” state Congress chief Shivakumar said Tuesday. “Surjewala has come; we do not know if decisions will be finalised today itself or if it will be delayed. In the first phase, we want to make MLAs and MLCs (as chairmen of boards and corporations). In the second phase, we will look at party workers and ex-MLAs,” Siddaramaiah said. The move to make appointments to boards and corporations by the Congress comes six months after the party won the state elections and formed the government. There has been restlessness among Congress MLAs who did not make it to the Siddaramaiah cabinet on account of the government also being tight-fisted about the release of development funds for the constituencies of MLAs. Surjewala’s arrival also comes amid speculation that the Congress may consider appointing a few more deputy chief ministers alongside Shivakumar in an effort to balance caste equations, especially after the Opposition BJP appointed former chief minister and Lingayat leader B S Yediyurappa’s son B Y Vijayendra as its state president. There has been a demand in the Congress ranks for appointing Lingayat leader M B Patil, Scheduled Tribe leader Satish Jarkiholi and Dalit leader Dr G Parameshwara as deputy chief ministers alongside Shivakumar, a Vokkaliga, and the CM, who is from the OBC Kuruba community. The Congress is also likely to carry out organisational changes with the appointment of working presidents since some of the working presidents, like Jarkiholi, are ministers. In August this year, when the first murmurs of unhappiness had emerged among Congress MLAs over being left out of the cabinet, Siddaramaiah had carried out a few inductions of MLAs into boards and corporations. Jewargi MLA Ajay Singh was appointed as the chairman of the Kalyana Karnataka Region Development Board (KKRDB) with as many as seven other MLAs as members. These were senior MLAs who had lost out on ministerial posts and were among a group of 30 disgruntled legislators who wrote to Siddaramaiah asking for redressal of their concerns over not being assigned sufficient responsibilities and funds for the development of their constituencies. There are over 70 different boards and corporations in Karnataka and more appointments are expected in the coming days as part of Congress’s efforts to maintain the equilibrium in the government which has 135 MLAs in a 224-member House. With the state cabinet filled to capacity with 34 ministers, the appointments are seen as a means to check unhappiness in the Karnataka Congress ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha polls where the party is targeting 20 of 28 seats. Among the problems facing the Congress is the lack of resources for development work in individual constituencies of the party MLAs on account of over Rs 52,000 crore of state funds in the budget being dedicated for the rollout of five poll guarantees made by the party ahead of the May elections, including free power, free bus travel for women, Rs 2,000 allowance per month for women heads of households, 5 kg of free rice and a Rs 3,000 allowance for unemployed graduates.
