Belagavi: A day after Janata Dal (S) leader, Basavaraj Horatti appealed to Chief Minister, H. D. Kumarswamy not to act like a rubber stamp of his coalition partner, the Congress appears to be getting ready to appoint its own man as the Chief Minister's political secretary along with the much awaited cabinet expansion on December 22.
Speaking to reporters on the sidelines of the on-going legislature session here, a cabinet minister said the coalition partners had arrived at a consensus on the key issues of appointment of a political secretary to the Chief Minister and parliamentary secretaries. The process of making appointments to state- run boards and corporations will also be completed soon, according to him.
Denying claims of JD(S) leaders that the Congress wanted to tighten its vigil on the Chief Minister, he pointed out that Congress MLAs too had been complaining of being ignored by the CMO.
“This has become a big issue for both parties since the coalition government was formed six months ago. The political secretary to the CM will look after the Congress party's interests and will be the contact person for all MLAs in the CMO,” he explained.
As for the cabinet expansion, he said it was likely to happen on December 22 as the day and time for it had been fixed by none other than PWD minister, H. D. Revanna himself.
“It may be impossible to have a cabinet reshuffle when the coalition government has completed just six months in office. As of now it looks like there will only be a cabinet expansion on December 22,”he added.
Going by him, the six vacant cabinet berths will be filled by representatives of the Vokkaliga, Lingayat, Backward Classes, Muslim, SC-Chalavadi and SC-Madiga communities.
“This time the party is looking to give representation to every region in the state and avoid an imbalance,” he said.
