Six days on, new Karnataka CM Kumaraswamy's cabinet woes are far from over

Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy

Ramakrishna Upadhya

Unable to have his coalition Cabinet even six days after being sworn in as Chief Minister of Karnataka, is HD Kumaraswamy getting ready to implode?

The JD(S)-Congress coalition, having defeated the BJP in the numbers game, put up a nationally-televised mega show on May 23 when Kumaraswamy and G Parameshwara took oath as CM and Deputy CM respectively, in the presence of a galaxy of non-BJP opposition leaders.

But since then, the leaders of the two parties have held several rounds of meetings, both in Bengaluru and New Delhi, but have failed to arrive at a consensus on Cabinet formation.

The JD(S) leaders are peeved that the Congress, after extending ‘unconditional support’ to Kumaraswamy as CM, is putting forth several tough conditions on the ministry formation.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi, after a couple of preliminary meetings, left for the United States along with his mother Sonia Gandhi for her medical check-up, and he is expected to be back only next week.

Rahul Gandhi had authorised senior party leader Ghulam Nabi Azad to hold negotiations with the JD(S) along with Karnataka brigade, consisting of Siddaramaiah, Parameshwara, Mallikarjun Kharge and DK Shivakumar. But they failed to make a breakthrough.

At the heart of the problem is Congress’ demand that being the larger partner, it should get major portfolios like finance, home, water resources, excise, health and Bengaluru development. But Kumaraswamy wants to keep finance and home with himself, citing ‘precedents'.

Showing his frustration at the stonewalling tactics of the Congress, Kumaraswamy said he was at the “mercy” of the Congress leaders, more than being obliged to the people of Karnataka.

BJP leader BS Yeddyurappa immediately jumped at it and said “it is a shame” that a chief minister had to behave like a “slave” before the Delhi leaders and by doing so, Kumaraswamy had “insulted” six crore Kannadigas.

Kumaraswamy has come under pressure from the BJP to implement his pre-poll promise of waiving all the loans taken by farmers from the scheduled, cooperative and rural banks amounting to Rs 53,000 crore. During election campaign, he had repeatedly said he would announce loan waiver “within 24 hours of coming to power".

After becoming CM, he tried to dodge the issue saying his promise was conditional on his party getting majority on its own and now he could not do anything without consulting the Congress. He, however, appealed to the farmers in distress not to take their own lives as he would “definitely do something for them.”
On the floor of the assembly, Yeddyurappa had reminded Kumaraswamy about his promise and warned that he would ask the farmers to observe a statewide bandh if the government did not deliver on its promise.

After the failure of talks with the Congress leaders on Monday in New Delhi, Kumaraswamy told reporters that he would make a “big announcement” in Bengaluru on Wednesday for the benefit of farmers.

Apparently, he has decided to take the bull by its horns and offer a suo motu relief to the farming community and challenge the Congress leaders to take a stand on the issue.

Adding to Kumaraswamy’s worries, state intelligence reports have warned that the delay in Cabinet formation is causing a lot of disquiet among legislators and at least 11 of them – whose names are not on the probable’s list – have met separately discussing their ‘future course of action.’

These names include some of those the BJP had approached after Yeddyurappa had been sworn in as chief minister on May 19 and the party was desperately trying to stitch together a majority.

Congress senior leader DK Shivakumar, who played a key role in keeping the Congress flock together, has made it clear that since he was not considered for Deputy CM post, he should be given an important ministry, besides being made the KPCC president. He’s strongly being opposed by the Lingayat lobby, headed by Shamanur Shivashankarappa and MB Patil.

In whatever manner Kumaraswamy finally manages to complete his Cabinet of 34 ministers, unhappiness is bound to remain in both the parties.

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