Deputy CM post not off the table yet: Shettar
It seems the honeymoon period is over for Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda with dissidence making a come back.
Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister Jagadish Shettar, who was also an aspirant for the chief minister’s post, said in Dharwad on Monday that the issue of creating a deputy chief minister’s post was still being discussed by the party central leaders.
The induction of Reddy brothers into the State Cabinet also gained momentum with Shettar and newly-inducted ministers Anand Asnotikar and Balachandra Jarkiholi putting their weight behind the issue.
Defending his decision to support the Reddy brothers in spite of their indictment in the Lokayukta report, Shettar said: “Unless their involvement in illegal mining is proved, keeping them aside from State politics is unfair.”
He said they were responsible for the formation of the first BJP government in South India. “We will have talks with senior BJP leader Dharmendra Pradhan to give Reddys the ministerial berth,” he said and made a veiled threat that “a future course of action will be planned if they are not inducted”.
Anand Asnotikar in Raichur on Monday, took exception to V Somanna’s induction into the Cabinet despite his indictment in the Lokayukta report. He demanded that the Reddys be given ministerial berths.
