Top leaders of the Congress-JD(S) coalition in Karnataka huddled on Wednesday, but they seem to have failed to arrive at a consensus on what was needed to be done immediately to safeguard the government: expansion of the Cabinet or its reshuffle.
Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy of the JD(S) held talks with AICC general secretary in-charge of Karnataka KC Venugopal, Congress Legislature Party (CLP) leader Siddaramaiah, Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara and Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president Dinesh Gundu Rao on the prevailing political situation in the backdrop of the BJP scoring a historic win in the Lok Sabha polls.
"No decision has been taken," Siddaramaiah said when asked about the Cabinet expansion.
According to sources, Kumaraswamy favours reshuffling his Cabinet by getting some ministers to step down and accommodate disgruntled leaders in their place, thus ending dissidence that otherwise may work in the BJP’s favour. But Siddaramaiah is learnt to be insisting on the expansion of the Cabinet - filling up the existing three vacant berths for now.
Meanwhile, the list of ministerial aspirants is growing day by day. On Tuesday, close to half a dozen MLAs met Kumaraswamy and urged him to make them ministers. On Wednesday, Congress’ Yellapur MLA Shivaram Hebbar said he was a ministerial aspirant, too.
Filling up existing vacancies may not serve the purpose of dousing dissidence whereas reshuffling the Cabinet may be a double-edged sword, sources point out.
Leaders, however, asserted that the coalition was safe. “Mainly, we discussed the Lok Sabha election results. We talked about why we lost despite us fighting together as an alliance,” said Parameshwara, adding that nothing was discussed about Cabinet expansion.
On Wednesday evening, the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) is scheduled meet where legislators have been asked to air their grievances, Parameshwara said.
But Rao said a decision will be taken on Cabinet expansion. “We will solicit opinions of MLAs at the CLP meet. Our general secretary will be here tomorrow as well. We’ll decide what needs to be done. A decision will be taken on Cabinet expansion. Ultimately, the exercise has to be one that improves the government’s performance and not one for someone to just get power,” Rao said.