Karnataka chief minister B.S.Y. Yeddy-urappa’s decision to revamp his Cabinet has triggered a tumult within the ruling party, with aspirants pestering him with requests and threats of mass resignation while one member of the Cabinet, Goolihatti Shek-har, warning on Monday that he would commit suicide if he was eased out.
Sports minister Goolihatti Shekhar went public with his threat of suicide on a day when Mr Yeddyurappa and state BJP president K.S. Eshwarappa discussed the list of potential candidates with the party’s central leaders in New Delhi. There were unconfirmed reports that the CM was told by BJP chief Nitin Gadkari that all decisions were on hold until BJP general secretary Ananth Kumar cleared the list. Another minister, Shiv-anagouda Patil, in charge of libraries and lotteries, held out the threat of quitting his membership of the Legis-lative Assembly if asked to make way for others. A third threat — of en masse resignation by 20 MLAs, including excise minister M.P. Renukacharya — came from aspirant Belur Goplakrishna, who took umbrage over a warning by the party’s state unit chief against lobbying for Cabinet berths.