HD Kumaraswamy cabinet is likely to expand by the month-end or first week of December

BENGALURU: On Saturday, in Bengaluru the six-month-old HD Kumaraswamy cabinet is likely to be expanded by the month-end or in the first week of December. As Dinesh Gundu Rao the KPCC president and the working president Eshwar Khandre had held talks with Venugopal AICC general secretary of Karnataka KC. Venugopal has given the green signal after discussing with the AICC president Rahul Gandhi.

“It will happen by the end of this month or before the beginning of the winter session in Belagavi,” Gundu Rao told reporters.

“We’ll take up the exercise by the month-end; all the eight berths will be filled,” home minister G Parameshwara said on the sidelines of a programme in Belagavi.

As per sources, on Friday night Venugopal, Gundu Rao, Parameshwara, Khandre, DK Shivakumar met at the former CM Siddaramaiah’s residence and decided to arrange a meeting of the coordination committee by next week where the date of the cabinet expansion will be decided. “In all probability, the cabinet expansion will take place before December 4,” a Congress leader said.

Meanwhile, the MLAs MB Patil and BC Patil had met Venugopal with a humble request of inducting them into the government. “My constituency hasn’t got representation in the cabinet for the past 37 years. So I’ve asked Venugopal to make me a minister,” Patil said.

The exercise had already been missed even with several deadlines in the past three months mainly because of the fear among the coalition partners of possible dissidence that it may trigger as there are over 20 aspirants in the Congress alone. The alleged efforts of the BJP to poach the MLAs and dislodge the government has also made the allies act at a slow pace regarding the matter. But now that the BJP is on the back foot after the 4-1 drubbing which it had received in the recent by elections that was held to three Lok Sabha seats and two assembly seats, the exercise might become a practical event.