Cabinet expansion likely next month: CM Yediyurappa
Bengaluru, Dec 22: The long delayed cabinet expansion in Karnataka might take place next month, with Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa indicating on Sunday that it may take place in mid January, around "Makar Sankranti."
"The high command has asked me to come after a week.Maybe by the end of this month we will finalise the list (cabinet expansion)," he told reporters after the oath taking ceremony of 13 of the 15 newly elected MLAs at Vidhana Soudha, the state secretariat.
Asked whether the news of the cabinet expansion would come in Sankranti, he said "maybe by that time."
The Chief Minister said he needed time to carry out the rejig and expansion as he has to leave for Delhi and hold discussions with the party high command.
To a question on cabinet berths to the newly elected BJP MLAs, Yediyurappa said, "There are no differences of opinion on this issue with party leaders in Delhi.
We had promised the newly elected MLAs that we will make them ministers, which we will fulfill. There is no doubt about it.
Those who took oath as MLAs on Sunday were Mahesh Kumathalli (Athani constituency), Srimant Patil (Kagwad), Ramesh Jarkiholi (Gokak), Shivaram Hebbar (Yellapur), B C Patil (Hirekerur), Arun Kumar Pujar (RaneBennur), Anand Singh (Vijayanagar), Dr K Sudhakar (Chikkaballapur), Byrathi Basavaraj (KR Puram), S T Somashekar (Yeshwanthpur), K Gopalaiah (Mahalakshmi Layout), Sharath Bachegowda (Hoskote), M C Narayana Gowda (KR Pet).
Two Congress MLAs Rizwan Arshad (Shivajinagar) and P Manjunath (Hunsur) did not take oath on Sunday.
Of the 13 disqualified MLAs fielded by BJP, 11 won the December 5 bypolls while two others M T B Nagaraj and A H Vishwanath lost the election.
The cabinet expansion would not be an easy task as Yediyurappa would have to strike a balance by accommodating the victorious disqualified legislators as he had promised and also make place for old guards, upset at being "neglected" in the first round of the induction exercise.
He also has to give adequate representation to various castes and regions in his cabinet, that currently has 18 ministers, including the Chief Minister, and the sanctioned strength is 34.
Though Yediyurappa had made it clear that the 11 disqualified MLAs who successfully contested the bypolls on party tickets would be made Ministers, Nagaraj and Vishwanath are lobbying hard to get ministerial berths, said BJP sources.
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England sticking with Key, McCullum and Stokes despite Ashes humbling
London (AP): England is not sacking anybody following the 4-1 Ashes loss in Australia.
A review of the tour by the England and Wales Cricket Board, announced within hours of the final match in January, was concluded on Monday. Firing people would “be the easy thing to do,” ECB chief executive Richard Gould said but he insisted, "This is not the time to throw everything out."
Managing director Rob Key, coach Brendon McCullum and captain Ben Stokes kept their jobs after the best England side to go to Australia in 14 years lost the Ashes in 11 days with two games to spare.
“Moving people on can sometimes be the easy thing to do. That's not the route that we're going to take,” Gould said. “I've seen the driving ambition and determination that we're lucky enough to have within our leadership group to take the lessons from the Ashes and move forward.”
Gould previously was the chief executive of Bristol City soccer club and said the ECB would not follow the same route as soccer's hire-and-fire culture.
“Cricket is a very unique sport in that it takes a team of leadership ... it's not like football where there's a single point of failure or success with a manager," he said. He added the ECB would not “select or deselect management based on a popularity campaign.”
The main criticisms of England's tour were poor preparation, player misbehavior, and selection mistakes.
At a press conference at Lord's, Gould and Key said McCullum and Stokes have not had a “bust up,” they did not want McCullum to “completely change” but “to evolve,” the behavior of some players was “unprofessional,” there will be more consequences for underperforming, and a commitment to “better long-term planning” ahead of major test series.
Some changes were already implemented for the Twenty20 World Cup, where England reached the semifinals. Gould implied that performance saved McCullum.
Key acknowledged that England supporters would be disappointed to see the management team go unpunished.
“I know people want punishment and that people then should be sacked for that,” Key said. “That doesn't mean we don't feel like we've gone through some serious pain: Brendon, myself, Ben. It's been as tough a time as I think I've had.”
