Kateel calls a halt to signature campaign against Deputy CM posts

BENGALURU: A low-profile campaign within the BJP to bring pressure on party leaders to do away with the posts of deputy chief minister has suffered a setback. BJP state president Nalinkumar Kateel is said to have discouraged the campaign undertaken by an MLA close to chief minister BS Yediyurappa.

CM’s political secretary MP Renukacharya, who represents Honnali in the Assembly, has been a vocal critic of the deputy CM posts. He had been gathering signatures from party members endorsing an appeal to scrap the deputy CM posts.

A former minister, Renukacharya has been a ministerial aspirant, and was upset at being kept out of the ministry. The CM, however, appointed him as his political secretary, and rumours are rife that he is in the race for inclusion in the next Cabinet expansion.


He is now learnt to have suspended his signature collection campaign after Kateel gave him a piece of his mind after the three deputy CMs, Govind Karjol, CN Ashwathnarayan and Lakshman Savadi expressed their displeasure, and reportedly took their complaint to the state BJP president.

Yediyurappa himself had said at a media interaction that the decision to appoint three deputy CMs was taken by the party high command. It is well known that the party created these posts with an intention to exercise control over him, much against his wishes. The appointments also came as a rude shock to senior MLAs such as R Ashok and KS Eshwarappa as they had held deputy CM posts under Yediyurappa 11 years ago. One of the Cabinet members, industries minister Jagadish Shettar is a former chief minister.

According to BJP sources, the CM has been under intense pressure from leaders such as minister B Sriramulu and Gokak MLA Ramesh Jharkiholi to induct them as deputy CMs in the next Cabinet expansion. The demand for more of these positions has made his task of Cabinet expansion much more difficult, and he might find sewing up a Cabinet consisting of only ministers a less cumbersome exercise.

The chief minister has now to keep his word to 11 newly elected BJP MLAs and make them ministers. That is expected to throw up the caste-wise, region-wise balance into disarray. The CM can only buy a little time, and he is under compulsion to complete the exercise sooner than later.