With not enough ministers in the Cabinet, this Republic Day will see the National Tricolour being hosted by deputy commissioners in 12 districts of the state. 

As per protocol, ministers in charge of the district are required to hoist the national flag. 

This is the second time the government has asked bureaucrats to hoist the national flag. On Independence Day last August, the flag was hoisted by the DCs in all districts except in Bengaluru where Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa, the lone Cabinet member then, unfurled the Tricolour.

On Sunday, the flag will be hoisted by DCs in Kalaburagi, Chikkaballapur, Koppal, Davangere, Mandya, Hubballi-Dharwad, Chitradurga, Kodagu, Haveri, Hassan, Vijayapura and Yadgir. In other districts, the ministers in charge will hoist the flags. 

In the 34-member Cabinet, 16 berths are vacant and Yediyurappa is under immense pressure from ministerial aspirants, who include the newly-elected legislators - earlier with the Congress and the JD(S) as well as native BJP legislators. 

The CM wants to expand his Cabinet by the end of January, but that looks easier said than done. 

On Saturday, BJP national general secretary (organisation) B L Santhosh held talks with Yediyurappa. Apparently, Yediyurappa requested him to get the BJP central leadership’s nod for the Cabinet expansion, given his proximity with the party’s new national president J P Nadda. 

Santhosh also met disqualified Rajarajeshwari Nagar legislator Munirathna, who is left in the lurch as the Election Commission has not announced bypoll to the constituency owing to a petition filed before the High Court of Karnataka challenging the 2018 election outcome. The petition has been filed by Muniraju Gowda, the BJP candidate who lost against Munirathna, who was then with the Congress.  

Apparently, Gowda belongs to Santhosh’s camp. Munirathna is said to have urged Santhosh to convince Gowda to withdraw his petition.