Bommai leaves for Delhi to consult BJP leadership on cabinet expansion
Bengaluru, Aug 1: Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai left for Delhi on Sunday to hold consultations with the BJP central leadership on expansion of his cabinet.
"Most probably there is a meeting tomorrow. I will meet our party president J P Nadda," Bommai told reporters before leaving for the national capital by a flight.
Earlier in the day, he said the cabinet expansion exercise may not take a week's time and a direction from the leadership was likely by Monday.
Bommai took oath as the Chief Minister on July 28 after the resignation of his predecessor B S Yediyurappa on July 26.
He is the lone Cabinet member in the government.
Meanwhile, many ministerial aspirants called on Bommai and raised the pitch for a cabinet berth.
Former agriculture minister B C Patil, who met Bommai, maintained that his meeting was related to an irrigation project in his constituency.
Asked whether he spoke to the CM about a ministerial berth, he said, "The CM is aware of it. He has already spoken about it (cabinet expansion) to the media that he will do it at the earliest. So I did not discuss with him on this issue."
Patil also took exception to terms like 'outsiders' and 'Bombay Boys' used to describe the 17 MLAs,who broke away from Congress and the JD(S) to topple the coalition government led by H D Kumaraswamy in 2019, were disqualified from the Assembly and later joined the BJP.
Of them, a majority of MLAs won the bypolls and 11 were made Ministers.
Those who quit Congress and the JD(S) have been demanding a ministerial berth, saying their 'sacrifice' in 2019 had helped install the BJP government in Karnataka.
Besides Patil, Murugesh Nirani, Shivanagouda Naik, Mahesh Kumathalli, K G Bopaiah, Dr C N Ashwath Narayan and V Somanna were among those who called on the Chief Minister on Sunday, party sources said.
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4 of family charred to death in fire at house in Howrah
Howrah (PTI): Four members of a family were charred to death in a fire at their house in West Bengal's Howrah district, officials said on Monday morning.
The incident happened in Sauria village in the Joypur police station area around midnight, they said.
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The deceased were identified as Durjodhan Dolui (72), his son Dudhkumar Dolui (45), daughter-in-law Shibani Dolui (40), and granddaughter Shampa Dolui (15).
An investigation is underway to ascertain how the kuchcha house caught fire, officials said.
Two fire tenders doused the blaze, they said.
The bodies have been sent to a government hospital in Uluberia for post-mortem examination, they said.
The family was very poor, officials said, adding that Dudhkumar also has a son, who works as a migrant labourer outside the state.
