Sharanabasappa Darshanapur

GULBARGA: The Ministry expansion has come as a shock to aspirants in the Janata Dal (S) and the Bharatiya Janata Party in Gulbarga district.

While only one from among the five MLAs and one MLC of the Janata Dal (S) has found a berth in the Ministry headed by H.D. Kumaraswamy, none of the BJP legislators from the district have been chosen causing disappointment among the aspirants of the two parties.

As expected, the Janata Dal (S) has included in the Ministry Sharanabasappa Darshanapur, who was elected from the Shahapur Assembly Constituency. It has ignored the claims of the other aspirants, including Vishwanath Patil Hebbal from Chitapur and Vittal Heroor who helped the party gain the support of the Kabbaligas in the last general elections.

Mr. Darshanapur, who was a Minister of State for Energy in the J.H. Patel Ministry, was a Ramakrishna Hegde loyalist and joined the party just before the 2004 Assembly elections.

Belonging to the Reddy Lingayat community, Mr. Darshanapur has been preferred by Mr. Kumaraswamy over the claims of Amaregowda Bayyapur, who was a Minister of State in the N. Dharam Singh Government. Mr. Bayyapur was one of the senior leaders who stood by Mr. Kumaraswamy when he revolted against his father, H.D. Deve Gowda, to lead a section of the party MLAs in withdrawing support to the previous Government.

Mr. Bayyapur is also a Reddy Lingayat. The district was given preferential treatment with a large representation in the earlier Ministries. Except for the short period during the Chief Ministership of the late Veerandra Patil in 1989 when MLAs from the district were not taken as Ministers, it has had at least two Ministers in the Cabinet.

When S.M. Krishna was the Chief Minister, there were six Ministers from the district.

However, political observers are of the opinion that in the final expansion to come some time later, the district is likely to get at least two posts with the BJP inducting one MLA from the district into the Cabinet.

Unhappy

The dissatisfaction is more telling among the BJP cadre in the district, who expected the party leaders to accommodate at least one legislator in the Ministry in the first expansion itself. By ignoring the district, the BJP leadership has sent a subtle message that none of the leaders or the legislators in the district has enough clout to get a berth in the Ministry.

Sources in the BJP said that one of the reasons for the party legislators not getting a post is the intense competition among all the four contenders, Revu Naik, Chandrasekhar Patil Revoor Sunil Valyapur, all MLAs, and Shashil G. Namoshi, MLC.

While Mr. Revu Naik is a three-time MLA from Kamalapur constituency, Mr. Namoshi is a two-time MLC. Mr. Naik and Mr. Namoshi were in a close race for a Ministerial berth.

With the party leadership accommodating three MLCs in the Ministry in the form of V.S. Acharya, D.H. Shankaramurthy and Ramachandra Gowda, the chances of a fourth MLC (Mr. Shashil Namoshi) getting a berth in the second expansion appear bleak.

Another strong aspirant from the party was Mr. Chandrasekhar Patil Revoor who was elected from the prestigious Gulbarga city constituency in the last Assembly elections.

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