Mysuru: In times of drought, how could a CM even dare to think of a Cabinet expansion to reward legislators?
For Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, the dry conditions have come in handy to postpone the expansion, which he was always reluctant to carry out fearing dissidence among Congress legislators.
“The expansion will not happen this month-end. Visiting drought-hit areas and handling drought is the priority. I am not going to Delhi now. We will be going to the capital only after touring drought-hit areas,” he said.
When asked about the demand for a reshuffle and the removal of non-performing ministers by Congress legislators, he said, “The pressure for reshuffle is not new. It has been there for quite some time. It will happen. But handling drought is our priority.” Replying to a question on the possibility of him being replaced, Mr Siddaramaiah said, “These are just rumours in the media.”
Asked if KPCC president Dr G. Parameshwar would be changed, he said, “This is a decision left to the Congress high command.” About the ongoing campaign for a Dalit CM he quipped, “Who said a Dalit should not become CM? A Dalit must become CM once. There are no second thoughts on this. There is no unrest in the party related to this.”
On the transfer of honest officers like T.M. Vijaybhaskar and Kumar Naik in Bengaluru in less than a year, and another IAS officer, Rashmi Mahesh, being sent on long leave, he said, “This is done for administrative reasons.”
When asked if the government was being vindictive by dragging BJP state president B.S. Yeddyurappa to the Supreme Court in the land denotification cases, the Chief Minister said, “Due to technical reasons, the high court dismissed the denotification cases against Yeddyurappa. We had sought legal opinion on whether we could go in appeal to the Supreme Court. These cases were there much before he became Bharatiya Janata Party state president. There is no revenge politics involved. All are equal before the law.”
