JOIN USThe State government will release the list of nominees to various boards and corporations on Monday, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said on Saturday.
Siddaramaiah and KPCC president G Parameshwara got the clearance for the list from the party high command in New Delhi on Friday.
There was tremendous pressure on the government to make these political appointments.
Replying to queries from reporters in Bengaluru, Siddaramaiah said the list will be out on Monday. “We may need to prepare a second list, too. We were not in power for almost 8-10 years, so the aspirations are very high among our party cadres. These appointments have been done in consultation with the party high command,” Siddaramaiah said. Their tenure will be for 18 months, after which fresh appointments will be made, he said.
At one point, the Congress leadership had even planned not to release a consolidated list, fearing rebellion among the party rank who could not make it to the list. It was planned that the selected nominees would be informed individually.
There was also a buzz doing the rounds in the Congress circles on Saturday that the chief minister would hold a minor expansion of his Cabinet by inducting three ministers – G Parameshwara, A Manju and Rajashekara Patil – soon. However,
Siddaramaiah said the expansion would be made at a later stage.
A lot of importance has been given to the caste factor while finalising the nominees
for the boards and corporations. While 50 per cent of the 82 nominations to various boards and corporations have been earmarked for the dominant Lingayat and Vokkaliga communities, as many as 24 castes from the other backward classes also figure in the list, sources said. Twenty-five per cent representation has been given to the youth and women. All the sub-sects among the Scheduled Castes have been given representation. Minorities have been given representation based on their population, the sources said.