No ministers will be dropped in cabinet expansion: CM

BANGALORE: Disappointing senior Congress legislators who wanted non-performing ministers to be dropped, chief minister Siddaramaiah on Wednesday indicated that the four vacancies in the cabinet would be filled with no changes in the present set-up.
With the five-week legislature session concluding on Wednesday, Congress legislators were looking forward to the CM's long-promised cabinet revamp.However, the CM is not likely to take it up until bypolls to Bellary Rural, Chikkodi-Sadalga and Shikaripur assembly constituencies are over on August 21.
Apart from the model code of conduct in force in the three districts going to bypolls, Siddaramaiah would not like to invite any trouble which is the usual fall-out after every cabinet restructuring amid byelections.
"Cabinet expansion needs to be discussed with the high command. Only after higher-ups permit expansion, will it be done," he said on the sidelines of a programme organized by rural development and panchayat raj department.
Recently, about 40 senior MLAs urged Siddaramaiah to drop "inefficient" ministers from the cabinet and induct "efficient" ones.
Selection of bypoll candidates: Congress has started shortlisting names of candidates to the three constituencies. For Bellary Rural, reserved for Scheduled Tribe (ST), former MLA from Molakalmuru NY Gopalakrishna is the frontrunner. For Shikaripur, the party has shortlisted former MLAs Shanthanagouda and Nagarada Mahadevappa. The party is likely to accommodate Ganesh Hukkeri, son of Chikkodi MP Prakash B Hukkeri, in Chikkodi-Sadalga.
The bypolls were necessitated following election of B Sriramulu (Bellary Rural), B S Yeddyurappa (Shikaripur) and Prakash Hukkeri (Chikkodi-Sadalga) to the Parliament in the Lok Sabha polls.
BJP has M Oblesh, longtime personal assistant of Sriramulu from Bellary Rural, B Y Raghavendra, son of B S Yeddyurappa from Shikaripur and MLC Mahantesh Kavatagimath from Chikkodi-Sadalga. JD(S) is yet to finalize their nominees. August 2 is the last date for filing nominations and counting of votes will be on August 25.