Dissatisfaction, intense lobbying ahead of Feb 6 cabinet expansion in Karnataka
Bengaluru, Feb 3: A wave of dissatisfaction has hit the six-month-old BJP government against the backdrop of ChiefMinister B S Yediyurappa's announcement to induct 13 aspirants in the second cabinet expansion on February 6.
In the first cabinet expansion, the Chief Minister had inducted 17 ministers on August 20, 2019.
Among the 13, ten will be those defectors from Congress and the JD(S) who were disqualified earlier and won the assembly by-election in December last year.
The rest will be the 'native BJP leaders', as DeputyChief Minister Govind Karjol put it.
Speculations are rife that Mahadevapura MLA Arvind Limbavali, Hukkeri MLA Umesh Katti and C P Yogeshwar, who had lost to H D Kumaraswamy from Channapatna assembly segment, would be inducted.
If Yogeshwar is included in the cabinet then he will be the second minister after Deputy Chief Minister Laxman Savadi who had lost and yet made it to the cabinet.
The possible induction of Yogeshwar and Savadi, who was made Deputy Chief Minister despite losing the Assembly elections, are also a "reason" for discontent in the BJP.
Hectic activities began in the power corridor and MLAs started forming groups to impress upon the Chief Minister to include their members in the ministry.
While one group was from the "Kalyana Karnataka" region, the others were the defectors who will be excluded in the cabinet expansion.
A few MLAs from 'Kalyana Karnataka' region or erstwhileHyderabad-Karnataka region comprising six districts, met at the Legislature Home and held a meeting.
The meeting was led by Shorapur MLA Narasimha Nayak aka Raju Gouda and Honnalli MLA M P Renukacharya.
The MLAs of theKalyana Karnataka region were unanimous that their backward region should get representation in the cabinet.
Later, Gouda met the Chief Minister and requested that their region be given adequate representation in the cabinet, which is lacking development.
Talking to reporters, Gouda said, "We had given representations to all the MPs, MLAs and the Chief Minister.
Today also we all had a meeting and later called on the Chief Minister requesting him to make any MLA from our region a minister."
He said any imbalance in cabinet expansion will cause trouble to the MLAs from Kalyana Karnataka region.
"If you make the defeated candidates ministers then include 120 people in the cabinet," an aggrieved Gouda taunted.
Renukacharya too echoed the same sentiments.
"If you give preference to the defeated candidates then what will happen to those who won the election? Where should the winners of the election go? We emphasise upon giving preference to the winners."
On the other hand, the defectors who jumped the Congress and the JD(S) ship and helped form the BJP government too had a meeting in Bengaluru, said BJP sources.
They were unanimous that not only the 11 MLAs who won the election be made ministers but also A H Vishwanath and M T BNagaraj who had unsuccessfully contested the assembly by- polls from Hunasuru and Hoskote on a BJP ticket.
Vishwanath, who was quite vocal on Sunday for dropping his name, was mellowed down on Monday after meeting Yediyurappa.
However, his insistence for getting a cabinet berth remained intact.
"I did not make any proposal before him and will not do itin future because he (Yediyurappa) knows what has to be done,"Vishwanath told reporters after meeting the Chief Minister.
When he was reminded of Yediyurappa's statement that there were legal complications in making him a minister, Vishwanathsaid, "This government has legal experts and the advocate general. They will speak."
Amid speculations that Athani MLA Mahesh Kumathalli maynot get a cabinet berth in the reshuffle, the defected MLAsled by Gokak BJP MLA Ramesh Jarkiholi, had a meeting to decide their future strategy, said party sources.
Currently, there are 18 ministers, including the chief minister, in the cabinet, which has a sanctioned strength of 34. Sixteen berths are vacant.
The cabinet expansion exercise will be a delicate task for Yediyurappa as he has to ensure adequate representation for various castes and regions.
The ministry already has eight Lingayats, including Yediyurappa; three Vokkaligas; a Brahmin; three SCs, two OBCs and one ST.
Opposition parties have been critical of the BJP and Yediyurappa over the delay in the cabinet expansion, alleging he is weak and his administration has collapsed.
Reacting to the cabinet expansion, former Chief MinisterSiddaramaiah quipped, "A drama is taking place. Let it happen on February 6. Afterwards we will see what all happens."
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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.”
