Now Reading: Shivakumar heads to Delhi to resolve Karnataka cabinet berth crisis
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Shivakumar heads to Delhi to resolve Karnataka cabinet berth crisis
Chief Minister DK Shivakumar is likely to travel to New Delhi on Sunday to seek the Congress high command’s intervention in the unrest over last week’s cabinet expansion and the delay in…
The Story in Brief
Chief Minister DK Shivakumar is likely to travel to New Delhi on Sunday to seek the Congress high command’s intervention in the unrest over last week’s cabinet expansion and the delay in allocating portfolios. One cabinet berth remains vacant, and a woman minister has yet to be inducted. Disgruntled MLAs, including Vijayanagara’s M Krishnappa and Kuruba leader Basavaraj Shivannanavar pushed by former CM Siddaramaiah, are pressing for berths. The party is considering asking some newly sworn-in ministers to resign to accommodate them, sources told The New Indian Express. Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah met on Friday evening before the planned trip.
The expansion on August 3 inducted 19 MLAs, but leaders from North Karnataka, the Kuruba community, and minorities were left out. AICC general secretary K C Venugopal advised Shivakumar to meet Karnataka in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala in Delhi. The opposition BJP and JD(S) are expected to target the government during the monsoon session starting August 13.
The Indian Opinion
The Congress likes to project its internal democracy as a strength, but the Karnataka cabinet fiasco shows it can be a liability. The narrative that the high command is all-powerful is one-sided: local factions and aspirants have openly defied decisions, leaving the party scrambling. Another exaggerated claim is that this is routine post-expansion grumbling. The absence of a single woman minister despite the party’s guarantees and the induction of a minister facing corruption charges make this crisis self-inflicted. Watch whether the high command asks a minister to resign, that number will tell if damage control is real or just spin.
Sources (4): deccanherald.com, newindianexpress.com, newindianexpress.com (2), thehansindia.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the 4 sources linked above.
Updated: this story now draws on 4 sources.
