BJP divided over cabinet expansion

The meeting, held at the official residence of Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa, was attended by state unit party president K S Eswarappa, senior leader M Venkaiah Naidu and RSS leders, BJP sources said. They held a marathon discussion on the plea by Yeddyurappa to go in for a minor ministry expansion to fill up two of the six vacancies, but no consensus emerged, the sources said.

The meeting felt that it was not advisable to go in for ministry expansion at this stage and it is better to wait for the final outcome of the High Court verdict on disqualification of 16 MLAs including five independents.

In another development, Naidu ruled out creation of Deputy Chief Minister post, a demand believed to have been putforth by Tourism Minister G Janardhana Reddy. Talking to reporters, Naidu said the issue of appointing a Deputy Chief Minister was not before the party and the post was not there in any of the BJP ruled states.

A division bench of the High Court today delivered a split verdict on the disqualification of eleven BJP MLAs, with the Chief Justice J S Khehar uphold the disqualification and Justice Kumar setting it aside. The matter would be heard by another bench on November 20.