HDK expands Cabinet, Farooq left out

Two independent legislators — R Shankar and H Nagesh — were inducted into Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy’s Cabinet on Friday, in what is seen as a band-aid measure to safeguard the 13-month-old Congress-JD(S) coalition government.

However, JD(S) MLC B M Farooq missed the bus due to differences between the father-son duo of H D Deve Gowda and Kumaraswamy. Though Gowda was in favour of Farooq getting a berth, Kumaraswamy is learnt to have disagreed as the Muslim leader from Dakshina Kannada belongs to the Beary community. Congress’ U T Khader, who is currently Urban Development Minister, already represents the community from the same district.

Kumaraswamy opined that the Beary community is confined to parts of coastal and the Malnad regions. Farooq is a businessman. His induction into the Cabinet would not serve the party’s purpose of wooing the Muslim community. The Chief Minister was actually toying with the idea of inducting either state JD(S) president A H Vishwanath (Kuruba) or senior leader and party MLC Basavaraj Horatti (Lingayat). But Gowda insisted on keeping the third berth vacant if Farooq was not inducted, JD(S) sources said.

The vacancy, however, may come in handy during a future exigency. The Chief Minister is yet to allocate portfolios to the new ministers.

It is speculated that Nagesh will get Primary & Secondary Education while Shankar will be given Municipal Administration.

By inducting Shankar and Nagesh, Kumaraswamy has ensured they do not extend support to the BJP, thus shoring up his numbers in the Assembly.

The BJP has 105 legislators in the 224-member Assembly where the majority mark is 113 and the saffron party is eight legislators short. Including the two independents, the Congress-JD(S) combine has 119 MLAs.

In January this year, Shankar and Nagesh had withdrawn support to the coalition. Shankar, who represents Ranebennur, was a minister in the Kumaraswamy Cabinet but was dropped when the Cabinet was rejigged last December. Nagesh, who represents Mulbagal, withdrew support saying he was unhappy with the performance of the coalition government.

Shankar and Nagesh have replaced the late C S Shivalli of the Congress and N Mahesh of the BSP, respectively. Kumaraswamy has maintained the caste balance as Shankar is a Kuruba like Shivalli and Nagesh belongs to SC like Mahesh.

Shivalli died of a cardiac arrest in March this year whereas Mahesh, the lone MLA of the BSP that had a pre-poll truck with the JD(S), resigned in October last
year.

Besides this, Kumaraswamy is said to be working out another plan to douse any rebellion that may arise, which involves giving them plum postings in boards and corporations.