BANGALORE, June 14: Chief Minister J H Patel inducted six ministers into his Council of Ministers on Sunday, triggering widespread discontent within the party.Of the new ministers, Basavaraj Patil Attur and A B Patil have been given Cabinet rank, while H Shivappa, M C Managuli, Nagappa Saloni and Jayanth Subbaraya have been inducted as Ministers of State.Governor Khurshed Alam Khan administered the oath of office and secrecy to the ministers at a simple function held on the lawns of Raj Bhavan.While Basavaraj Patil Attur had served in the Ramakrishna Hegde Ministry, A B Patil was part of the H D Deve Gowda ministry. The rest are first-timers.Shivappa who represents Harihara Assembly constituency in the newly-created Davanagere district, is an associate member of the Janata Dal.Tremors of discontent normally associated with Cabinet expansions were felt even before the new ministers were sworn in.Leaders like former prime minister Deve Gowda, Agriculture Minister C Byre Gowda, Speaker RameshKumar and Deputy Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and the MLAs supporting him did not attend the swearing-in ceremony.Instead, they held separate conclaves later in the day, expressing anguish over the prominence given to Lingayat legislators.The mood at the conclaves was so grim that one minister said some senior ministers had threatened to resign.Patel's promise of a Cabinet reshuffle in a fortnight evidently failed to reassure them.Some Vokkaliga Ministers and legislators who met H D Kumaraswamy were advised to bring pressure to bear on Patel. Supporters of Siddaramaiah, who met at his residence, expressed anger at the preference given to legislators from North Karnataka as against those from Old Mysore.Some disgruntled Lingayat legislators also met to express dissatisfaction over the ``interference'' of B S Patil, secretary to the Chief Minister, which they claimed was the reason for their being left out of the list of ministers.Deve Gowda who spoke to dissident Vokkaliga legislators at theresidence of his son Revanna is understood to be upset that Patel did not heed his advice to delay the Cabinet expansion and combine it with a reshuffle on the same day. He is also upset about his list being ignored.When contacted, all he said was that the Cabinet expansion was the prerogative of the Chief Minister.Siddaramaiah also declined to comment.
