Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister B S
Yediyurappa on Saturday said cabinet expansion would take
place soon after the November 3 assembly bypoll and that the
BJP candidate in RR Nagar, Munirathna, would be made a
minister "soon after he wins".
"It (expansion) has been put on hold for quite some time
due to various reasons. I will go to Delhi to discuss it with
party leaders.
It will take place soon after the bypoll results are
announced," he told reporters ahead of a road show in
Rajarajeshwari Nagar.
Asked about his announcement at the road show that
Munirathna would be made minister, he said "I am 100 per cent
going to make him minister after he wins the bypoll.'
Congress state chief D K Shivakumar flayed the
announcement on Munirathna, saying it it was a violation of
the model code of conduct.
"Let him be made chief minister.... but now saying that
he (Munirathna) will be made minister itself is a poll code
violation," Shivakumar told reporters.
Addressing the road show, Yediyurappa asked voters to
elect Munirathna by at least a 50,000 vote margin, "paving the
way for him to be made minister soon after he wins."
He lauded the steps taken by Munirathna to help people of
his constituency during the coronavirus induced lockdown and
urged them to help him win by at least a 50,000 margin,
"paving the way for making him a minister."
The Chief Minister said Rs 900 crore worth work has
already been sanctioned in the constituency.
Yediyurappa, seeking to silence his critics within and
outside BJP, reiterated that he would continue as Chief
Minister for the rest of the term and run the party and
government.
On October 21, senior BJP legislator Basanagouda Patil
Yatnal had said that Yediyurappa would not remain Chief
Minister for long and the high command had decided that his
successor would be from the north Karnataka region.
While BJP leaders downplayed Yatnal's statement, saying
there was no truth in it, former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah
told a private news channel recently that the Chief Minister
will not continue after the Bihar election.
Basavaraj Horatti of JD(S) too had claimed a week ago that
Yatnal has the backing of the BJP high command as he has not
been removed from the party yet.
The RR Nagar bypoll has become a prestigious battle with
all three political parties -- BJP, Congress and JD(S)
fighting it out intensely.
The election was warranted as Munirathna, a former
Congress MLA, resigned from the assembly last year and joined
the BJP.
The Congress has fielded former IAS officer late D K
Ravi's wife and senior leader Hanumantharayappa's daughter H
Kusuma, while the JD(S) has fielded V Krishnamurthy.
The by elections at RR Nagar in the city and Sira in
Tumakuru district will be held on November 3.
Counting of votes is on November 10.