Karnataka cabinet expansion: Uneasy calm among BJP leaders

Bengaluru: Uneasy calm prevails among a section of BJP leaders in Karnataka as they have got the news that the party is keen on replacing elderly leaders with new faces, sources said.

According to sources in the party, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai and the party top brass are said to have agreed upon giving chance to six new faces in the cabinet.

It is said that Bommai has proposed the creation of five deputy chief ministers to give representation to scheduled castes, tribes, other backward communities, Lingayat and Vokkaliga castes.

Bommai's proposal has been agreed upon by the high command as well as former chief minister Yediyurappa, sources explain.

Though, RSS leaders are said to be hesitant on forming a cabinet on caste lines. They are also of the opinion that the creation of posts of deputy chief ministers will create unnecessary rivalry among themselves.

The senior BJP leaders, who enjoyed plum postings, are said to be disturbed after the news of laying them off in the new cabinet reached.

Former chief minister Jagadish Shettar, former minister S. Sureshkumar, former deputy CM R. Ashok and Govind Karajol are lobbying hard to retain their prominence in the party.

The party has decided to induct 21 to 25 ministers into the cabinet in the first phase. After seeing reactions, decisions will be made in future, sources claimed.

But, most of the legislators who joined BJP from the Congress are likely to make it to the cabinet. Yediyurappa has been continuously issuing sympathetic statements on them, party sources say.

Meanwhile, former ministers Umesh Katti, C.C. Patil, C.P. Yogeshwar, former deputy chief minister Lakshman Savadi and MLA Aravind Bellad are camping in New Delhi and are meeting senior leaders.