The Hindu : Front Page : BJP to discuss selection of Ministers today

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 01, 2006

Front Page

Front Page

BJP to discuss selection of Ministers today

Alladi Jayasri

BANGALORE: Leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party B.S. Yediyurappa and H.N. Ananth Kumar will meet the party's Central leadership in New Delhi on Wednesday to discuss the merits of aspirants for ministerial berths.

Chief Minister-designate H.D. Kumaraswamy and Deputy Chief Minister-designate Yediyurappa will meet the BJP's top leaders on Wednesday and draft a Common Minimum Programme for the coalition. They will resolve differences between the parties before they are sworn in on Friday. Mr. Ananth Kumar, MP and party General Secretary, will also meet the party's leaders.

In the past three days, aspirants for ministerial berths sought an audience with Mr. Ananth Kumar,

Mr. Yediyurappa and party's State unit president Jagadish Shettar, and sent emissaries to them and senior leader M. Venkaiah Naidu.

It is well known that Mr. Kumar, Mr. Yediyurappa and Mr. Shettar have their own loyalists and supporters, who expect their patrons to reward them. Party sources told The Hindu the leaders have agreed to "call a truce" if only for the purpose of Ministry-making.

This will mean that after accommodating veterans, a balance will have to be struck by allotting berths to each faction. A similar procedure will have to be followed in appointments to boards and corporations.

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