Lobbying on among new Cabinet ministers for six plum portfolios

BENGALURU: Hectic lobbying is going on among the eight new ministers who were sworn in on Sunday along with Chief Minister Sidddaramaiah and Deputy CM D K Shivakumar for six important portfolios.

While Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar is himself firm on the Energy, Water Resources and Bengaluru Development portfolio, K J George and Ramalinga Reddy too are eyeing the latter portfolio, sources said.

On the other hand, M B Patil is keen on the Water Resources department, while G Parameshwara is eyeing the Public Works Department (PWD) or Revenue department.

Given the lobbying, there are questions whether the portfolios will be allocated as per the demand of ministers or whether they will be distributed after the formation of the full cabinet.

Last Friday night, a serious discussion was held at Congress general secretary K C Venugopal’s residence in Delhi about allocating the ministerial berths. Initially, more than 20 MLAs were expected to be sworn in. Earlier, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar had insisted that their close associates should be given ministerial posts. Given the situation, the high command finally decided to have 8 ministers to begin with in order to prevent dissidence.