BS Yediyurappa postpones portfolio allocation after Arun Jaitley’s death

There was no respite for chief minister BS Yediyurappa, who returned to the state from New Delhi late Friday night, as Saturday saw another wave of meetings with leaders pressuring him over the ministerial berths that was only interrupted by news of the death of former Union minister Arun Jaitley.

Yediyurappa had visited Delhi to get party president and Union Home Minister Amit Shah’s approval to release the portfolio allocations, which has not been done yet four days after the 17 ministers were inducted into the state cabinet.

Additionally, disgruntled MLA Umesh Katti visited Yediyurappa in the morning to hold a meeting with the chief minister over his exclusion from the state Cabinet. His visit coincided with that of minister Laxman Savadi, whose inclusion was the bone of contention for Katti, as both hail from Belagavi district and the latter is not a member of either house of the legislature at present. Katti refused to comment on the matter, when contacted by HT.

A close aide of Yediyurappa confirmed to HT that the chief minister had almost finalised the portfolio list when news broke of Jaitley’s passing around 12.30 pm. “It was felt that it was not the right to time to release the list,” the Yediyurappa aide said. The chief minister is tentatively scheduled to travel to Delhi on Sunday to attend Jaitley’s funeral, pending confirmation of the funeral. This will be Yediyurappa’s fourth trip to the national capital in under a month.

The portfolio allocation is set to be done on Monday as per the revised schedule as most senior leaders from the state will be headed to Delhi to pay respects to Jaitley.

Independent MLA and minister H Nagesh, who had withdrawn support to the coalition last month despite being a minister, said he only hoped that the BJP leadership would give him a ministry that would ensure that he was in constant touch with the people. “Everything is up to the central leadership and the chief minister and I don’t have any specific demands, just that they should give me a ministry that keeps me in constant touch with people,” he said.

Senior leader and minister KS Eshwarappa told reporters that it was not correct for anybody to demand particular portfolios. “We have 17 friends because of whom we are in power today and they have to be placated. So, all our leaders must keep this in mind,” he said.

Eshwarappa was referring to the 17 rebel former MLAs who were disqualified last month, and whose resignations led to the collapse of the Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) coalition government. The rebels had camped in Delhi to meet their legal counsel, according to former MLA AH Vishwanath.

However, a BJP minister confirmed that they were worried that their case against the disqualification had not come up for hearing in the Supreme Court. “Naturally, they are worried about it because we can think of accommodating them or not based on the resolution of that case,” the minister said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.

BJP MLA Arvind Limbavali, too, headed to New Delhi on the day. Limbavali was not inducted into the Cabinet, despite being a key member of the BJP team that was in charge with staying in contact with the rebels.