Cabinet expansion that was not to be: Shrewd sidestepping by CM Bommai, BJP top brass

Time is running out for Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai to expand his cabinet, as the state heads for elections in April-May.

Though it’s been over 30 months since Bommai took over the reins of the state from B S Yediyurappa on July 28, 2021 and inducted 27 ministers a week later, there are six vacancies in his cabinet.

Even as Bommai has been saying for months that the cabinet expansion would take place and that he was waiting for the BJP high command’s nod in this regard, it is anybody’s guess if he would be able to go ahead with the exercise as there are too many aspirants.

With the possibility of revolt by those who are left out, the chief minister and the high command are wary of rocking the boat in the run up to the elections.

Read | Cabinet expansion soon, says CM Bommai

Although the issue had died its own death, it came to the fore again with Leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah alleging in Kalaburagi that Bommai was not expanding his cabinet as he wants to avoid giving a berth to state BJP vice-president B Y Vijayendra, Yediyurappa’s son.

Honnali MLA M P Renukacharya, a strong ministerial aspirant, told DH that he realised too soon that he would not be made minister, so he focussed on securing more funds from the CM for his constituency.

“I still feel Bommai should have undertaken Cabinet expansion at least six months ago and induct new faces to infuse fresh blood in the administration. We have lost the golden time,” said Renukacharya, who is also the CM’s political secretary.

Another strong aspirant, former minister K S Eshwarappa told DH that his supporters and religious leaders wanted him to return to the cabinet, after he got a clean chit in the suicide case of contractor Santosh Patil.

“I do not know till date the compulsions under which the CM deferred it (expansion) for so long. To avoid embarrassment to the party, I announced that I am not an aspirant any more,” he said.

M H Sridhar, a senior party functionary, said the present BJP does not think or act like the way other parties do.

“Merely carrying out cabinet expansion or including fresh faces will not lift the party’s image. The chief minister’s job, as the captain of the ship, needs to ensure that the existing machinery (ministers) functions well and pro-people schemes reach the beneficiaries, which he has done to satisfactorily. In Gujarat, when Narendra Modi was CM, 50% of the cabinet berths remained vacant. But he ensured that welfare schemes reached the people,” he pointed out.

Higher Education Minister C N Ashwath Narayan said Karnataka is a different political ballgame altogether.

“Our party always takes calculated decisions. What is the guarantee that rebellion would have ended after filling the vacant berths? Election time is when our party gets cracking, without succumbing to pressures. The party high command and Bommai moved cautiously in not carrying out the Cabinet expansion,” he said.

Political analyst Sandeep Shastry said, perhaps, Bommai, who had witnessed his father S R Bommai’s government (1988-89) falling just two weeks after the cabinet expansion, might have been extra cautious in the matter.

“Unlike Uttarakhand or Gujarat, the party is not firmly in control of the affairs here. A variety of factors come into play as the BJP in the state is made up of two powerful groups: one that of the original partymen and the other comprises those from the erstwhile Janata Parivar. It is extremely difficult to make decisions. Thus, it was a calculated move on the part of the high command not to give green signal for the Cabinet expansion,” he said.