Aspiration to get cabinet berth gains life among district MLAs

MLAs from Chikmagalur district want post this time or never

With acute cacophony in the State political front, the local MLAs who have been the aspirants for ministerial berth had forgotten about the issue for a while.

However, with the Chief Minister speaking about the cabinet expansion, the dreams of the aspirants seem to have gained life all over again.

All the five Legislative Assembly seats in the district are with the BJP and as the Chief Minister had once represented the region as the MP, the local MLAs are sure of getting a post in the cabinet this time at least.

Even after four years of BJP rule, not even a single local MLA was absorbed into the Cabinet and this rightly became a major reason of contempt among the people of the district as well as the MLAs.

The people of Chikmagalur had thought that D V Sadananda Gowda would give representation to the district in his cabinet as he has a bond with the region.

However, Gowda is said to have given several reasons to postpone the expansion. After Koppa election, Chikmagalur by polls and now the Legislative Council polls, the people of the region have been anxiously waiting for the CM to take up cabinet expansion and hand over at least one post to any one local MLA.

MLA D N Jeevaraj, C T Ravi and M P Kumaraswamy are the forerunners for the ministerial post. While these three have been very vocal about their ambitions, the sources within the party circles inform that Tarikere MLA D S Suresh and Kadur MLA Dr Y Vishwanath too have been knitting dreams of becoming ministers. However, the political pundits say that the path for C T Ravi and D N Jeevaraj to reach to the ministry is rather easier when compared to the rest.

If sources are to be believed, discussions have been held at higher levels of the party to make Jeevaraj and Ravi ministers and hand over Chikmagalur and Hasan districts to them respectively.

 It is said that the cabinet expansion will not be delayed this time because national leaders have directed the State leadership very sternly to make the administrative mechanism in the State vibrant. With this, there is news making rounds that the expansion will be done by June 14.

Meanwhile one local MLA who has been fed up of waiting for the expansion, on conditions of anonymity said that if the expansion is further postponed then no MLA from the district will accept the cabinet position. Instead a delegation will be led to Delhi to meet national leaders to talk about the problems persisting in the district.

“The ones who fled from other parties were given posts and the ones who toiled to build the party over years have been neglected. This point will be brought to the notice of the leaders,” said the MLA.

For the State leadership, it is not just the national leaders who have made their stand clear over cabinet expansion but even the MLAs from a deprived district too have almost given a clarion call that if not this time, then they will never be a part of the cabinet in future.