Only bypoll winners to be made Ministers, says Karntaka CM

Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa on Tuesday (December 17) made it clear that only those MLAs who won the recent bypolls will be made ministers and no one else.

With cabinet expansion on the cards ever since the BJP secured a comfortable majority in the Assembly by winning 12 of the 15 constituencies which went to byelections on 5 December, hectic lobbying has started for ministerial berths.

Many aspirants have made a beeline for the Chief Minister, seeking to push their case.

The minister for health and family welfare B Sriramulu is keen to get the post of Deputy Chief Minister. “We have already said that those who have won the recent assembly byelections will be made ministers. There is no question of making others as ministers,” Yediyurappa told reporters.

“I will go to Delhi after December 21 or 22 and get the matter (cabinet expansion) resolved. The oath-taking (by the new ministers) will take place by the end of the month,” the Chief Minister added.

The Karnataka government can have 34 ministers, including the chief minister, of which 18 have been filled.

MLAs G Somashekar Reddy, Murugesh Nirani, Umesh Katti, Ramesh Jarkiholi and deputy chief minister Laxman Savadi met Yediyurappa on Tuesday and are believed to have discussed cabinet expansion.

BJP sources said Jarkiholi had put forth his demand to make him Deputy Chief Minister with the plum Water Resources portfolio.