Bengaluru: Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa yesterday appointed three Deputy Chief Ministers and allocated portfolios to all 17 Cabinet Ministers, who were inducted on Aug. 20. The allocations of the portfolios were done as per the directions from the BJP High Command.
The portfolios were distributed on the expected lines as three Dy.CMs — Govind Karjol (SC), Dr. C.N. Ashwath Narayan (Vokkaliga) and Laxman S. Savadi (Lingayat) — were given the second top posts. While Karjol will be the PWD Minister with additional charge of Social Welfare Department, Dr. Ashwath will be the Minister for Higher Education, IT and BT besides Science and Technology. The other Dy.CM Laxman Savadi has been given the charge of Transport Department.
It may be mentioned here that Star of Mysore had carried a news item titled ‘BSY to have not One, not Two but Three Dy.CMs’ on Aug. 24 mentioning Govind Karjol, C.N. Ashwath Narayan and K.S. Eshwarappa to be appointed as Dy.CMs. It may be recalled, the earlier BJP Government had two Dy.CMs (Ashoka and Eshwarappa).
The distribution of the portfolios comes in the wake of delayed announcement of CM Yediyurappa’s cabinet, after the Chief Minister took oath alone a month ago on July 26 and the expansion of his cabinet came under criticism from opposition Congress and JD(S).
The three Deputy CMs named today has also caused heartburn among the other senior members of the party with Minister Sriramulu, former CM Jagadish Shettar and others said to have expressed their displeasure with CM Yediyurappa. Sources, also said that Yediyurappa is said to have informed the senior members that he played no role in the appointments of DyCMs as all decisions were taken by the Party High Command.
Meanwhile, BSY is keeping with him several key portfolios like Finance, Power, Food and Civil Supplies, Irrigation, Urban Development, Bengaluru Development and related affairs, among others. Some of these portfolios are likely to be allocated to disqualified Congress-JD(S) MLAs as and when they make it to the Ministry.
Yediyurappa has kept 16 Minister posts vacant to accommodate some more BJP members and from among those 17 disqualified legislators who helped him come to power. The then Assembly Speaker K.R. Ramesh Kumar had disqualified 17 Congress-JD (S) rebel MLAs under the anti-defection law, which they have challenged in the Supreme Court.
Ministers & their portfolios
1. CM B.S. Yediyurappa: Finance, Intelligence, Information and Publicity, Bengaluru Development, Water Resources, Energy, Agriculture and all other unallocated portfolios.
2. Deputy CM Govind Karjol: PWD and Social Welfare
3. Deputy CM Dr. Ashwath Narayan: Higher Education, IT & BT, Science and Technology
4. Deputy CM Laxman Savadi: Transport
5. Jagadish Shettar: Major and Medium Industries
6. K.S. Eshwarappa: Rural Development and Panchayat Raj
7. R. Ashoka: Revenue
8. B. Sriramulu: Health and Family Welfare
9. Suresh Kumar: Primary and Secondary Education
10. V. Somanna: Housing
11. C.T. Ravi: Tourism, Kannada and Culture
12. Basavaraj Bommai: Home
13. Kota Srinivas Poojari: Muzrai, Fisheries, Port and Inland Transport
14. J.C. Madhu Swamy: Law & Parliamentary Affairs, Minor Irrigation
15. C.C. Patil: Mines & Geology,Commerce & Small Scale Industries
16. Shashikala Jolle: Women and Child Welfare
17. Prabhu Chauhan: Animal Husbandry
18. H. Nagesh: Excise
Yediyurappa’s cooking, and somebody eating it. All those DCMs will not even garner 10 seats if they go to election today. I think he should get out of BJP. He made a mistake of rejoining the party. Maybe Modi and Shah might have threatened him with CBI case if he did not join and bring the party to power. If he resign and retire, BJP will never ever come to power in Karnataka. Modi’s name will not fly here, only Yediyurappa’s charisma works.