In a testimony to the intense lobbying for ministerial berths in the ruling party, Congress legislators in the State are understood to be spurning the offer of becoming parliamentary secretaries to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.
Under pressure to expand his council of ministers, Siddaramaiah is learnt to have decided to appoint at least five parliamentary secretaries for himself, to reduce the list of ministerial aspirants.
He is planning to offer these posts to senior leaders belonging to different communities. But it is learnt that none of them is ready to accept the offer.
The names of legislators making the rounds for the posts of political secretary are H M Revanna, M Y Meti, N A Haris, Tanveer Sait, A Manju, Dr A B Maalakaraddy, Malikaiah Guttedar, Basavarajraya Reddy and Vinay Kulkarni.
Sources said these leaders have set their eyes on ministerial berths.
The decision to appoint parliamentary secretaries was taken in a recent meeting between the chief minister and State Congress president G Parameshwara. The plan was to give Minister of State rank to these parliamentary secretaries.
Five legislators belonging to scheduled castes, the Vokkaliga, Lingayat and minority communities and the backward classes were to be accommodated.
At least two dozen Congress legislators of the ruling party are lobbying for ministerial berths. They are mounting pressure on both the party and the chief minister to induct them into the Cabinet, so much so that every time AICC general secretary in charge of Karnataka Digvijay Singh visits Bengaluru, the aspirants make it a point to meet him and make demands.
But Siddaramaiah is not very eager to expand his council of ministers. However, speculations are rife in party circles that the Congress high command might ask him to conduct a shake-up of his team early next year.
DH News Service