Bengaluru: As the game of one-upmanship between Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy and chairman of coordination committee Siddaramaiah, continued, the contentious issue of appointment of chairpersons to state-owned boards and corporations was set to take a turn for the worse with Mr Kumaraswamy likely to appoint his own party colleagues as political secretary to the Chief Minister and chairperson of Karnataka State Pollution Control Board.
Sources in Dal (S) said Mr Kumaraswamy, in a move to silence Congress leaders as well as retain his party's hold on minorities, is likely to appoint national spokesperson, Tanveer Ahmed, as chairman of KSPCB and office bearers Shafiullah or Jaffrullah as his political secretary.
Mr Tanveer Ahmed has emerged the front runner to head KSPCB though Prof K S Rangappa, former vice chancellor of Mysore University and a relative of the Chief Minister, was also in contention for this post. S
The move will send a signal to Mr Siddaramaiah that the Chief Minister, as head of the coalition government, could take decisions independent of the Congress. He is also ignoring Congress president Rahul Gandhi's choice of former minister V Muniyappa and Dr K Sudhakar respectively for these two posts. Both candidates were chosen on Mr Siddaramaiah's recommendation.
