With no solution in sight to the tussle for portfolios, Karnataka chief minister Jagadish Shettar rushed to New Delhi on Saturday to seek the help of senior Central leaders of the party on allotment of departments to his Cabinet colleagues.
Mr Shettar was left with no choice than to request leaders in Delhi to step in as ministers continued to squabble over plum portfolios during several meetings of the core committee. He was accompanied by one of the deputy chief ministers, R. Ashoka, who reportedly refused to part with the portfolio of home which he held along with transport in the previous government.
His stand prompted the other deputy chief minister and state unit president K.S. Eshwarappa to demand that he head key departments of urban development and revenue, sources in the party told this newspaper.
The sources said that to add to Mr Shettar’s woes, ministers who served in the previous Cabinet headed by Mr D.V. Sadananda Gowda, were lobbying to ensure that they were not given insignificant ministries. Some of them were seeking an assurance that they would be allowed to hold on to their previous ministers. A few others, including Mr B.N. Bachhe Gowda and Mr Varthur Prakash even tried to get Mr Sadananda Gowda to put in a word on their behalf.
Mr Shettar, however, was non-committal and told them that he would return with a solution from New Delhi.