Mysuru: It may be because Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has got exactly what he asked for - a team that he can work with. Or is it a ploy to make sure he does not ruffle too many feathers now, so that he can have the whole party united behind him and make the claim for the top post when the time is ripe after the 2018 polls?
So that's probably why for the first time since he took over as CM in 2013, a quietly confident Siddaramaiah, while acknowledging that he would lead the party into the 2018 elections, refused to say if he would wear the mantle of CM again, declaring that this would be decided in the Congress legislative party.
Defending the appointment of Energy Minister D.K. Shivakumar, who was widely believed to be in the race for KPCC president, as chairman of the party's campaign committee, he said, "It is also a very important position. And Shivakumar is not dissatisfied and neither are his supporters."
Explaining the appointment of Dinesh Gundurao as working president of the KPCC for South Karnataka and S.R. Patil for North Karnataka, he said with the assembly elections nearing, it would be difficult for one leader to handle the affairs of the party all over the state and so two working presidents were appointed on the high command's orders.
Asked when he would expand the Cabinet, the CM said it would be done after the assembly session. "I will decide on filling the posts of three ministers which are vacant," he added.
