With a reshuffle of the Siddaramaiah-led Cabinet looking imminent in Karnataka, several Congress legislators, veterans and first-timers alike, have stepped up their efforts to bag a berth, with some landing up in Delhi to make their case.
Days after a group of Congress MLAs travelled to the National Capital, senior leader and MLC B K Hariprasad and MLAs H C Balakrishna, Iqbal Hussain, Sharath Bache Gowda, and Nayana Motamma have arrived in Delhi to meet the central leadership.
Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, who has aspired for long to become the CM, said there was “nothing wrong” with the trips. “They are going for their future. Since the Cabinet expansion has been announced, they are seeking ministerial berths,” he said Monday.
Hariprasad, the AICC in-charge for Haryana, has been eyeing a Cabinet berth since the Congress came to power in Karnataka in 2023. Tipping the scales in his favour is the fact that he was overlooked during Siddaramaiah’s first term between 2013 and 2018.
Apart from him, other senior leaders such as former Deputy CM Laxman Savadi, who joined the Congress ahead of the 2023 Assembly polls, former ministers T B Jayachandra, Basavaraj Raya Reddy and R V Deshpande, and MLCs Salim Ahmed and Umashree, are said to be among the aspirants.
First-time MLAs such as Siddaramaiah’s legal advisor A S Ponnanna and Motamma are also learnt to be eyeing ministerial berths. “There are 28 first-time MLAs in the party. Their argument is that they should be provided an opportunity along with the likes of ministers Priyank Kharge, Krishna Byre Gowda or Dinesh Gundu Rao, who were made ministers soon after securing their first electoral wins,” a Congress legislator said.
There are 16 berths up for grabs in the 34-member Cabinet, apart from the two vacancies created by the resignations of B Nagendra and K N Rajanna. While Nagendra stepped down over allegations of fraud in the Valmiki Corporation, Rajanna was sacked by the party over his comments on “vote chori”.
Apart from regional and electoral calculations, sources said the party was likely to take into account the coming local body elections while filling up the vacancies. “The number of ministers from Bengaluru – currently four – will see a slight increase. It will not be a surprise if two more legislators from Bengaluru make the cut given the Greater Bengaluru Area (GBA) polls,” a source said.
Siddaramaiah recently said though the party high command had given a go ahead for the Cabinet reshuffle five months ago, he had suggested doing it only after his government completed two-and-a-half years in power.
Congress insiders said the induction of new ministers would take a little longer and was likely to happen only late next month or in January next year. “It is unlikely that the changes will be affected ahead of the Winter Session of the Assembly, which commences on December 8,” the legislator said.
As the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government in Karnataka completed two-and-a-half years in power last week, a group of seven to eight MLAs, along with a few MLCs, all seen to be die-hard supporters of Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, landed in Delhi to meet party chief Mallikarjun Kharge.
Sources said at the time that the legislators’ arrival in Delhi to ostensibly canvass for Shivakumar’s claim to the CM’s seat confirms that the Congress leadership was not going to rock the Karnataka leadership boat for a while, especially in the aftermath of the recent Bihar election loss for the Mahagathbandhan.
According to Congress sources, the high command asked Siddaramaiah to wait on a Cabinet reshuffle that he is keen on but which Shivakumar opposes if there is no simultaneous handover of the CM’s post. A long-time demand of the CM’s group for a new state president — who could be the CM candidate for the 2028 state polls — has also been put on pause due to the disinclination of Shivakumar to quit.
