Appointing deputy is CM's prerogative: Jayachandra

Law Minister T B Jayachandra on Tuesday said creation of a deputy chief minister’s post will not result in a parallel power centre but said going ahead with the appointment was the sole prerogative of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.

Interacting with reporters in Bangalore, Jayachandra did not rule himself out from being in the race for the post. He was responding to queries on reports about a tug-of-war between Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president G Parameshwara and himself on bagging the coveted post. 

“We are friends, we have worked together. There is no competition,” Jayachandra said, ruling out that there was any fight for one-upmanship.

Jayachandra said the Congress had created the post of deputy chief minister (S M Krishna), when Veerappa Moily was the chief minister and it had not created any problem in the party. Rumours are rife in the political circles that Siddaramaiah is not keen on getting himself a deputy.

 If at all he has to create the post, then he would rather give it to Jayachandra than Parameshwara. Both Jayachandra and Parameshwara are from Tumkur district.