BENGALURU: Chief Minister, Siddaramaiah, seems to have taken a calculated risk by ‘stage-managing’ a meeting of 24 legislators at his residence on Saturday. Ahead of the crucial visit of party general secretary in charge of Karnataka, Digvijay Singh, to Bengaluru on Wednesday, Mr Siddaramaiah managed this meeting to send a message that legislators were mounting pressure on him to shake up his council of ministers and therefore central leaders should give their consent for the reshuffle at once.
Mr Singh would be here as one of the guests for the programme being hosted by the party to commemorate 125th birth anniversary of B.R. Ambedkar. Barring this, he had no other official programme, party sources said. However, one of the legislators who attended the Saturday meeting, Munirathna, told DC that legislators would meet him and press their demand for a reshuffle. “We will try to convince Mr Singh on the need to draft 20-odd ministers for party work," he added. Sources explained the rationale Mr Siddaramaiah organising the meeting. Such a meeting would help Mr Siddaramaiah mount pressure on the party high command to get an approval for a reshuffle. "Of the 34 ministers, dropping 20-25 would be impossible. This will help Mr Siddaramaiah to settle for at least 10-12 ministers whom he consider ineffective. In the past, he tried to convince the party high command to give permission for a reshuffle, but it was shot down due to strong opposition from senior leaders. To neutralise opposition of leaders such as Mallikarjun Kharge, Mr Siddaramaiah got the legislators rally around him," sources said.
Why did MLAs like M. Krishnappa and Shivanand Patil who are not part of the CM camp attend this meeting? “They too took calculated risk by attending such meetings. By showing solidarity from Day One may brighten their prospects of getting a place in cabinet if CM decides to drop ministers from the city. There are many MLAs who attended the meeting based on such calculations,” sources added.
