‘Flip-flop’ Shankar asked to merge his party with Cong

Ranebennur MLA of Karnataka Pragnavantha Janatha Party (KPJP) R Shankar, who is likely to be sworn in as a Cabinet minister on Friday, is learnt to have been asked to merge his party with the Congress.

Sources in the Congress said Shankar has been asked to become an associate member of the party soon after taking oath as the minister. Later he will merge his party with the Congress. The move by the coalition partners, the Congress and the JD(S), is aimed at preventing him from switching his loyalty, again.

Shankar is likely to be re-inducted in the H D Kumaraswamy Cabinet under the Congress quota. Of the three Cabinet vacancies, one belongs to the Congress and the JD(S) has got two berths.

Ranebennur MLA had switched loyalty between the Congress and the BJP many times in the past one year.

Soon after the Assembly election results were announced, he had identified with the BJP. Later, he went to the Congress-JD(S) camp after he was offered a ministerial post.

In December last year, Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy dropped him from the Cabinet for refusing to become an associate member of the Congress. Then, in the next few days, he was seen in the BJP camp. Now, he has shifted his loyalty back to the Congress for becoming the minister. He, as a result, is known in the political circles as “flip-flop” Shankar.

“This time we want to make sure he remains in the Congress. So the party has laid down a condition to him that he can become the minister only if he merges his party,” the Congress sources said.

Meanwhile, former Assembly speaker K B Koliwad has raised objection to the decision to merge KPJP with the Congress. Shankar became MLA by defeating Koliwad in Ranebennur Assembly constituency. The former speaker met KPCC president Dinesh Gundu Rao in Bengaluru on Thursday and expressed his displeasure at the party’s decision.