Karnataka Cabinet reshuffle on the cards, Congress may get new state president

Congress, facing Opposition heat over various scams, may drop some ministers, appoint a Lingayat as KPCC president

Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah with his deputy D K Shivakumar. (Express file photo by Tashi Tobgyal)

At a time when the Siddaramaiah-led government in Karnataka is facing constant Opposition pressure over various scams and months after a disappointing Lok Sabha election performance, the Congress leadership is learnt to be mulling a Cabinet reshuffle.

While there is no clarity yet on when the reshuffle will be carried out, party insiders said some “non-performing” Cabinet ministers could be dropped. The reshuffle is also likely to see a minister moved back to the organisation to replace Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar as the state Congress president. The Congress is said to be keen on appointing a Lingayat leader as Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president — Shivakumar is a Vokkaliga — as the party feels they have moved away from it after backing it in the Assembly elections in 2022. In the Lok Sabha elections, the Congress did not fare well in the Lingayat-dominated regions of Central and Kittur (Mumbai) Karnataka.

On Tuesday, Shivakumar travelled to New Delhi for a meeting with the party leadership, providing fresh impetus to speculation in party circles about the Cabinet reshuffle that first started following Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar’s visit to the national Capital earlier this month. Then, last week, Women and Child Development Minister Laxmi Hebbalkar said the reshuffle was likely to happen “within six months” and not ahead of the Winter Session of the legislature in December, as earlier believed.

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Congress insiders said the reshuffle would be based on a report by former Rajya Sabha MP Madhusudan Mistry who has been tasked with reviewing the Lok Sabha election results in which the party managed to win only nine of the state’s 28 parliamentary seats while the rest went to the BJP and the JD(S). One of the key findings of the report is that the BJP-JD(S) coalition took leads in constituencies represented by ministers.

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Among the ministers who could face the axe are Hebbalkar, Primary and Secondary Education minister Madhu Bangarappa, Municipal Administration and Hajj Minister Rahim Khan. Either Industries Minister M B Patil or Forest, Ecology and Environment Minister Eshwar Khandre could be moved out to head the state Congress, said sources.

Congress MLC Saleem Ahmed told The Indian Express that the party’s high command would decide on Cabinet reshuffle in consultation with Siddaramaiah and other senior leaders. A senior Congress leader said on the condition of anonymity that discussions about the reshuffle were on and the timing was still uncertain. Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge is scheduled to travel to poll-bound states between August 20 and September 10 — three Assembly by-elections are due to be held in Karnataka — and it is unlikely to happen in this period, according to the senior party functionary.

“Apart from some ministers singled out for their poor performance, the high command will have to decide on filling the berth vacated by former minister B Nagendra,” said the leader. The Enforcement Directorate (ED) arrested Nagendra in July in connection with the alleged misappropriation of funds at the Karnataka Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation.

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