BSY to reach Delhi today, talk Cabinet expansion

Over 50 days since by-election victory of 11 former Congress and JD(S) legislators helped BJP cement a clear majority in the Assembly, Yediyurappa has not been able carry out a Cabinet expansion, apparently due to lack of clearance from the party’s central leadership.

He is said to be under pressure from the newly elected rebels to expand the ministry since he had promised to make them all ministers when they defected from the Congress and JD(S) in July 2019, and helped bring down the then alliance government. There is also pressure from old BJP hands to be accommodated in the 16 vacancies that exist in the Cabinet.

The BJP central leadership is learnt to have suggested a formula where eight or nine rebels are accommodated, with the remainder berths going to BJP loyalists.