Cabinet expansion this month: KPCC chief

Expansion of Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy’s Cabinet will happen this month, Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) president Dinesh Gundu Rao said on Wednesday.

Out of 34 Cabinet berths, the Congress has six vacant from its quota of 22, whereas the JD(S) can fill up two, out of 12. The Congress is under pressure from ministerial aspirants as well as from party workers who are lobbying to be appointed as heads of boards and corporations.

Rao said the party would discuss the proposed expansion with JD(S) supremo H D Deve Gowda once he returns from his tour.

“AICC general secretary incharge of Karnataka K C Venugopal has already said (expansion) will happen. It will be done this month,” Rao said on the sidelines of an event to mark the 129th birth anniversary of Jawaharlal Nehru.

On the occasion of Nehru’s birth anniversary, Congress leaders urged party workers to counter the BJP’s narrative against the Gandhi family going into the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

“It is easy to take jibes at the Gandhi family, but it’s not easy to make sacrifices for the country like the family has. No other family in India has sacrificed so much for the country. The BJP’s agenda is to discredit the Gandhi family,” Rao said.

Former Lok Sabha member H Hanumanthappa said Sardar Patel was not alive when India had its first general election. “If Patel had contested, he may have won and may have become the prime minister. But a narrative is being spun that Patel was prevented from becoming prime minister and we need to counter this,” he said.