BSY-Shettar: Cracks already!
With hardly hours to go before he is sworn in as the third Chief Minister of the BJP government, Jagadish Shettar is facing a formidable challenge with Governor H.R. Bhardwaj not taking kindly to attempts to include tainted leaders in the ministry. Serious differences have cropped up between Shettar and the leader who backed him, former CM B.S. Yeddyurappa, on who should make it to the cabinet, indicating that the new CM is in for a rough ride in the 10 months he will be in office.
Mr Shettar, who rushed to New Delhi on Wednesday along with BJP state chief K.S. Eshwarappa to meet central leaders on ministry formation, had to contend with a domineering Mr Yeddyurappa who insisted that his supporters — B.J. Puttaswamy, C.C. Patil, Laxman Savadi and Karadi Sanganna — be inducted. But Mr Shettar politely refused, strengthened by senior party leaders’ support. They felt the entry of BSY supporters would not only upset the caste matrix, but also tantamount to rewarding candidates like Mr Puttaswamy who embarrassed the top brass by contesting the recent Rajya Sabha polls as a rebel, party sources said.
Mr Shettar, who staked claim to form the government soon after Sadananda Gowda submitted his resignation, intends to complete the cabinet formation exercise at one go. Mr Eshwarappa said, “Shettar and I are going to Delhi to meet our party chief and decide who should be in the ministry.” Mr Eshwarappa and former home minister R. Ashok are likely to be sworn-in as deputy chief ministers as part of the party’s ‘LKG’ or Lingayat-Kuruba-Gowda formula to retain its support base ahead of next year’s elections to the Assembly.
Immediately after Mr Sadananda Gowda’s resignation, senior leaders Rajnath Singh and in-charge of BJP affairs in Karnataka Dharmendra Pradhan held talks with general secretary H.N. Ananth Kumar, Mr Shettar, Mr Yeddyurappa and Mr Eshwarappa, on cabinet formation. All 20 members of Mr Gowda’s cabinet would retain their position while the rest of the berths would be divided equally between groups led by DVS and BSY.
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