Karnataka CM Siddaramaiah gets Congress chief’s Sonia Gandhi  nod for cabinet reshuffle

#Bangalore: Congress Govt.  Karnataka  cabinet is set to be revamped, with chief minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday saying he got the green signal from the Congress high command to drop some ministers and induct fresh faces.

“We discussed all names to be dropped and inducted with AICC president and vice president Sonia and Rahulji. We have convinced them,” Siddaramaiah told reporters after the second round of consultations in as many days with the Congress chief. “[The party] high command has authorised me to go ahead with the reshuffle.”

The list will be prepared in a day or two, and will be submitted to the governor, he added.

Amid mounting pressure from various quarters for ministerial berths, the discussion held on Friday in connection with the much talked-about reshuffle remained inconclusive. Before the meeting, Siddaramaiah discussed the matter with Congress leader in the Lok Sabha, Mallikarjun Kharge.

Sources said the chief minister has proposed dropping at least 10-14 ministers from the cabinet and inducting young legislators and senior Congress leaders to balance caste and regional factors.

Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee president G Parameshwara and Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh were present in the meeting. Gulam Nabi Azad, who was in-charge of Congress affairs in Karnataka in 2014, joined the deliberations later.

The exercise is being undertaken to tone up the government after Congress’ debacle in recent assembly polls in four states, especially Assam.

Karnataka is the only major state where Congress is in power after being ousted in Kerala and Assam recently.