Fragile unity in BJP after holding State to ransom

Stand-off serious setback to BSY, Reddys image gets badly damaged

A reshuffle  of the B S Yeddyurappa cabinet will take place about a month later but there will be only reallocation of portfolios.

 While Shobha will be dropped any time, Assembly Speaker Jagdish Shettar may not get into the cabinet immediately. Shettar, who was projected as an alternative to Yeddyurappa, also wants a couple of his supporters to be inducted along with him, which may not happen.

The chief minister  is likely to meet Shettar in Bangalore on Monday.

Shobha will be made national general secretary or head of the Mahila Morcha, but this appointment will come only as part of the announcement of the new team led by the next national president. The tenure of incumbent president Rajnath Singh will end next month.

The co-ordination committee will be a large one with either central leaders Sushma Swaraj or Ramlal as its chief.

Other senior leaders such as Arun Jaitely, Venkaiah Naidu will be its members apart from the state party chief, the chief minister, H N Ananth Kumar, MP, rebel leader and Revenue  Minister G Karunakara Reddy, ministers K S Eshwarappa, R Ashok, Katta Subrahmanya Naidu, and RSS representatives Satish and Santosh.

The core committee will be on the lines of the cabinet committee on political affairs and appointments committee of the cabinet of the Union Government.

Headed by the chief minister, it will include fourto five key ministers, including Tourism Minister G Janardhana Reddy and Health Minister B Sriramulu. This committee will look into the day-to-day administration issues such as policies and appointments.

Political analysts here say following the two-week long political crisis, the chief minister has been left battered, his powers clipped and his position compromised. The Reddys have come not out with flying colours either. Rather, they have received an all-round condemnation among large sections of  society for the manner in which they held the government to ransom.

The BJP stand-off has come as a serious setback to an embattled Yeddyurappa. From now on, his move will be watched by others. Every key decision has to be taken by consensus and he may not have much say in the government’s decision making process.

Many see here the Sunday truce as only temporary as things may get worse again now that it is decided that the chief minister should take everybody along. What was achieved on Sunday, analysts say, was only a fragile unity, which may  come apart at the slightest tension at the top.

During the crisis, the  chief minister was upset that ministers such as Basavarj Bommai, Murugesh Nirani, C M Udasi, who are loyal to him, did not come to his support. He gave a dressing down to them – whom incidentally he was protecting – on Saturday night following which they rushed to Delhi on Sunday morning.