No deputy chief minister post in Siddu Cabinet

Ahead of Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s visit to the national capital to discuss his Cabinet expansion, the Congress high command is said to have made up its mind against the creation of a deputy chief minister’s post.

Instead, the party is set to ask the chief minister to induct State Congress president G Parameshwara as a Cabinet minister with a key portfolio.

“The Congress generally doesn’t encourage deputy chief minister’s post in a single-party government. Creating such a post will always give ample scope for an alternative power centre within the government. The party has decided not to give any scope for another power centre,” sources in the party told Deccan Herald.

“Despite a section of Parameshwara’s supporters demand a deputy chief minister’s post for the State Congress chief, the high command never applied its mind on those lines,” said the sources. “There is no political compulsion for the party at this juncture to create a DyCM post for the State Congress president,” the sources added.

The chief minister, along with Parameshwara, is expected to arrive at the national capital on Wednesday to discuss the matter with Congress president Sonia Gandhi and vice president Rahul Gandhi.

Apart from Parameshwara, the high command is likely to give the green signal to induct two others as Cabinet ministers – one each from the Lingayat  and Vokkaliga communities.

Though at present four berths are vacant in the Siddaramaiah Cabinet, the party top brass may allow the chief minister to fill only three posts, the sources said.

Aspirants have started hectic lobbying for ministerial berths as a large number of MLAs, including Veeranna Mathikatti, Ishwara Khandre, A Manju, K B Koliwada, Vinay Kulkarni, Rajshekar Patil, Shivamurthy Naik and Prakash Rathod, were camping in Delhi and meeting party top party leaders.