BENGALURU: Leaders of JD(S) are set to pick eight legislators for berths in the cabinet, keeping in mind the criteria of adequate representation to various districts, ahead of the swearing in ceremony scheduled for Wednesday.
The upshot: Veteran politicians and former ministers including Mr A H Vishwanath (Mysuru) and H K Kumaraswamy (Hassan) will wait in the wings for their turn to join the cabinet or count themselves lucky in case party patriarch H D Deve Gowda approves of their induction on Wednesday.
Sources in JD (S) said the lone BSP legislator, Mr Mahesh (Chamarajanagar), will be accommodated in the ministry with Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy’s elder sibling, H D Revanna, set to make it as the lone minister from Mr Deve Gowda’s home district, Hassan, but could walk away with two plum portfolios of public works and power. Giant killer G T Deve Gowda (Mysuru), Mr Bandeppa Kashampur (Bidar), Mr Venkat Rao Nadagouda (Raichur), Mr Srinivas (Tumakuru), Mr C S Puttaraju (Mandya), and Mr Srinivas Gowda (Kolar) are the others who are set to take oath on Wednesday.
Sources said another legislator from Hassan district, Mr A T Ramaswamy, is tipped to occupy the post of deputy Speaker while another veteran from the Legislative Council, Mr Basavaraj Horatti, who was keen to head the ministry of education, will be convinced to settle for the position of Chairman of the upper House. Entrepreneur and first-time MLC Mr B M Farooq could miss the bus on Wednesday. With this list of probables, seven senior legislators would be forced to lobby for the remaining three vacancies as per the power sharing formula (12 ministers of JD (S) and 22 of Congress) arrived at between leaders of JD (S) and Congress.
A majority of first-time legislators would be left with no option other than lobby for posts of chairpersons of state-owned boards and corporations, sources added.
