Bengaluru: A day after it seemed that Congress leader Siddaramaiah had gained the upper hand by extracting the all important portfolio of Home from Dr. G. Parameshwar, Deputy CM in the Congress-JD(S) coalition government, which was then allocated to Lingayat strongman M.B. Patil, the balance tilted back in favour of his arch-rival, with the final list showing Dr. Parameshwar as having been given charge of IT-BT, once the preserve of Siddaramaiah's 'man' K.J. George. Dr Parameshwar's bonus was Law & Parliamentary affairs that had been under Krishna Byre Gowda. Other beneficiary was state Congress' troubleshooter extraordinaire - Water Resources minister D.K. Shivakumar, who may have given-up the Medical Education portfolio as well as party's all powerful Campaign Committee chairman's post, but he too was rewarded with equally important portfolios of Kannada and Culture, and Information department.
It appears that the tactics adopted by both Deputy Chief Minister, Dr G. Parameshwar and D.K. Shivakumar paid dividends as they not only continue to hold plum portfolios but also in lieu of the portfolios they had given up, they have got back equally important portfolios on Friday.
Going by the list, Congress party central leaders executed a fine balancing act which gave both stalwarts and newcomers less scope to crib about the recent rejig that took place almost a week ago.
A close analysis of the portfolio re-allocations, shows that while at first glance it appeared to have given Congress Legislature Party leader, Siddarmaiah the upper hand, in reality the re-allocation sent out a message that the majority of the five key portfolios that were held by Mr Siddaramaiah's loyalists have been taken away and redistributed.
For instance, Industries minister K.J. George is considered to be a Mr Siddaramaiah loyalist, but had to give-up IT and BT and Sugar portfolios, while Leader in the Legislative Council, Jayamala had to forego Kannada and Culture as well as Information. Similarly, among the youngsters, U.T. Khader and Krishna Byre Gowda too were asked to give up important portfolios like Housing and Law and Parliamentary Affairs portfolios respectively.
Speaking to Deccan Chronicle, a senior leader from New Delhi said, "We knew that the re-jigging exercise would not be easy. But one thing was clear - the party central leaders did not intend to give the impression that they have become players in the hands of a particular camp. The party had to honour Dr Parameshwar as the DyCM as well as Mr Shivakumar who has been a great trouble shooter. Hence, the party decided to give them their due this time. Both Mr Shivakuamr and Dr Parameshwar stood by their demand, saying that if the party is taking a plum portfolio from their quota it must be equally compensated. That is what we did it with Dr Parameshwara and Mr Shivakumar," the source explained.
The source further added that the party had to placate leaders from North- Karnataka region, hence, the party took the advice of Mr Siddaramaiah and decided to appoint Mr Patil as Home Minister.
