Bommai to discuss Cabinet expansion with Shah on May 3

Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Friday said he would meet Union Home Minister Amit Shah next week to discuss inducting new faces into his Cabinet even as he acknowledged that there is pressure from ministerial aspirants.

“Shah is scheduled to come to Bengaluru on May 3. Most probably, I’ll meet him and ask him (for a nod to go ahead),” Bommai told reporters. Shah is slated to attend the valedictory of the Khelo India university games in the city among other programmes.

Bommai has five positions vacant in the 34-member Cabinet.

A section of BJP lawmakers has sought a Gujarat-like overhaul of the Cabinet keeping the elections in mind.

Earlier this week, Honnalli BJP MLA M P Renukacharya scoffed that the Cabinet should have been expanded long back and said vacancies should be filled up soon to add “aggression” to the government in an election year.

“I have made note of these sentiments and they have been conveyed (to the high command), who said a decision will be taken at the appropriate time,” Bommai said.

Bommai went to New Delhi on Friday night for a conference of all chief ministers and chief justices on Saturday, followed by a dinner hosted by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. “There’s no possibility of me meeting any Union ministers or the BJP national president,” he said, virtually ruling out discussing Cabinet expansion with the party’s top
brass.

Meanwhile, the wait-and-watch game has caused disenchantment within the party where some even argue that an expansion or rejig at this point in time will not mean much.

“With just seven months left, what’s the point in becoming a minister? It’ll be just namesake,” Renukacharya said on Friday, keeping up the pressure on the party.

Speculation is that Bommai’s Cabinet will not be expanded until after senior lawmaker K S Eshwarappa is exonerated from charges of abetting the suicide of contractor Santosh Patil. It is also said that the delay in the Cabinet expansion or rejig is because the BJP central leadership is miffed with the way the Bommai administration has handled corruption charges.

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