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Dissidents want six Ministers to be dropped

Special Correspondent

Chief Minister agrees to induct Shettar into the Cabinet

— Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

DEAL FINALISED: Revenue Minister G. Karunakara Reddy, Tourism Minister G. Janardhan Reddy and Health Minister B. Sriramulu coming out of Speaker Jagadish Shettar’s residence in Bangalore after a meeting on Saturday.

BANGALORE: With the Bharatiya Janata Party high command firmly ruling out any leadership change in the party-led Government in Karnataka, the dissidents are learnt to have arrived at a stand that they would not press for a leadership change till the presentation of the State Budget next year if Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa drops six Ministers close to him and includes six MLAs from their group in the Ministry.

According to sources, the dissident camp has served an ultimatum of two days to drop six Ministers close to Mr. Yeddyurappa, failing which they would continue with their demand for an immediate leadership change.

Such a stand was taken by the rebel group after its leaders G. Janardhan Reddy, G. Karunakara Reddy and B. Sriramulu met Speaker Jagadish Shettar here on Saturday.

The dissident group claimed that the Chief Minister had told Mr. Shettar that he was ready to include him in the Cabinet in a day or two and that he would consider the demand for dropping the other Ministers in a phased manner in about a week. But the dissidents are said to be particular that the six Ministers should be dropped within two days.

According to sources close to the Speaker, Mr. Shettar is said to be reluctant to join the Ministry alone. He is particular that he should join the Ministry with others from the dissident faction, they said, and added that this was the reason why he was yet to quit as Speaker.

The dissident camp is said to be seeking the dropping of Shobha Karandlaje, Basavaraj Bommai, C.M. Udasi, Murugesh Nirani, Laxman Savadi and H. Halappa from the Ministry.

The main aim is to clip the Chief Minister’s wings by reducing the number of his hardcore supporters in the Ministry, the sources said.

In return, the dissident faction has suggested that the Chief Minister include six MLAs, including C.T. Ravi, S.A. Ramdas, A. Narayanaswamy and M.P. Renukacharya apart from Mr. Shettar.

The dissident faction claimed that this demand had been discussed with the party high command during the recent negotiations and Mr. Yeddyurappa had agreed to this.

Another demand was constitution of a core committee to enable the Chief Minister to make collective decisions on important issues, including transfer of civil servants.

The dissident camp is said to be insisting that party national general secretary H.N. Ananth Kumar should head the committee.

The Ministers from Bellary district have reportedly offered to stay out of this committee and to keep Mr. Shettar as their representative in the committee.

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