CM Siddaramaiah meets Mallikarjun Kharge, Karnataka Cabinet rejig likely early next year

New Delhi: The long-pending Karnataka Cabinet reshuffle is likely to take place early next year as Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge told Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to come back after discussions with Karnataka in-charge General Secretary Randeep Surjewala after the Parliament session.

Siddaramaiah was closeted with Kharge here for more than 45 minutes in a one-on-one meeting. Even Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar was not present at the meeting as he left for Bengaluru early to attend to ‘personal’ work, sources in the Congress told DH.

After Siddaramaiah is learnt to have raised the long pending Cabinet rejig, Kharge asked the CM to discuss it with state Congress president Shivakumar and Surjewala and come up with concrete proposals.

Kharge told the CM that the Central leaders will be busy with the Parliament session from December 1 to 19.

The CM also told Kharge that the state Assembly session will be held from December 8 to 19 at Belagavi.

Sources told DH that if a Cabinet rejig is effected, it will be early next year and not before that. 

However, both Kharge and Siddaramaiah were not available for comment about their meeting.

Meanwhile, Shivakumar is learnt to have opposed the Cabinet rejig and reminded the party top leader about the change of leadership.

Kharge told the CM that the Central leaders will be busy with the Parliament session from December 1 to 19. The CM also told Kharge that the state Assembly session will be held from December 8 to 19 at Belagavi. Sources told DH that if a Cabinet rejig is effected, it will be early next year and not before that. 

However, both Kharge and Siddaramaiah were not available for comment about their meeting. Shivakumar is learnt to have opposed the Cabinet rejig and reminded the party top leader about the change of leadership. Shivakumar, who met Kharge on Sunday evening, told the top leader that if the party allows Siddaramaiah to rejig his Cabinet, then he would continue as the CM. However, Kharge told Shivakumar that it would be dealt with by senior leader Rahul Gandhi, sources said.

Separately, Shivakumar’s brother and former MP D K Suresh also held a closed-door meeting with the CM for half an hour at Karnataka Bhavan on Monday.

Interestingly, Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar along with other state party leaders had lunch together at Karnataka Bhavan. Before going to the meeting with Kharge, the CM told reporters that it will be a courtesy call. “During the discussion, if the issue of Cabinet expansion comes up, we will deliberate on it.”

Dozens of Congress leaders, including Basavaraj Rayareddi, Appaji C S Nadagouda, T B Jayachandra, M R Seetharam and Ashok Pattan, came to the national capital to lobby for ministerial berths.