Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Monday denied plans to revamp his year-old ministry after the announcement of Lok Sabha election results, leaving ministerial aspirants deeply disappointed. Some of them are former ministers and senior MLAs.
Many of them, however, are already occupying positions in boards and corporations and in CM’s office, holding a Cabinet-rank. But many are not happy with what they have and have been lobbying hard to get into the Cabinet.
Senior MLAs have been nursing hopes of a Cabinet reshuffle after the Congress leadership assigned tasks to local ministers to get the party candidates elected in cases where it went by their choice of candidates. Such ministers as well as those whose children contested the polls carried a bigger responsibility to win or else be prepared to pay a price.
The Congress has never had a double-digit tally in the LS polls after 1999, but this time the party is hopeful of hitting double digit on the back of guarantees the government implemented in the past one year. Siddaramaiah said on Monday that he expected the Congress to win 15-20 seats out of the 28 the party contested.
With the CM’s categorical rejection of any possibility of a cabinet reshuffle after the results, sections of senior MLAs are expected to meet in a day or two to discuss their future course of action. The party had apparently asked all those MLAs who had been given positions in boards and corporations that they should not demand cabinet berths later. But they are unlikely to scale down their aspiration and will continue to exert pressure on the party leadership.
