The keenly-awaited Cabinet expansion or rejig may be delayed until late March as the BJP high command is caught up with polls in five states, including the crucial Uttar Pradesh.
According to BJP leaders, though the Cabinet exercise was promised soon after the Sankranti festival, it will now be at least a month late.
Speaking to DH, BJP general secretary N Ravi Kumar confirmed that elections in five states have delayed the Cabinet expansion.
“Now it will be taken up only after polls are completed in Uttar Pradesh and other states,” he said. To a question, he said that the Cabinet expansion was imminent “but only after elections”.
The expansion or reshuffle of the Bommai Cabinet is significant as Karnataka faces elections 13 months from now.
The BJP is looking at bringing in fresh faces into Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai’s Cabinet by ensuring a balance in regional and caste representation.
At present, Bommai has four berths vacant in the 34-member Cabinet.
Complaints that a few regions and districts are over-represented in the Cabinet will be among the issues that the high command is expected to address during the reshuffle, sources say. There is also speculation that several senior ministers will be dropped to make room for young legislators.
Ever since it came to power in 2019, the BJP has faced disgruntlement within as several MLAs remain unhappy about “migrant” ministers - those who joined the party from the previous Congress-JD(S) coalition.
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