After K'taka cabinet expansion, over dozen BJP MLAs slam Yediyurappa for overlooking them

Jan 13, 2021

Vijayapura (Karnataka) [India], January 13 : Over a dozen BJP leaders including senior leader H Vishwanath and Basanagouda Patil Yatnal have lashed out at Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa for overlooking them in the state cabinet expansion and considering only those who "blackmailed" him.
Attacking Yediyurappa during a media address in Vijayapura, Basanagouda R Patil (Yatnal) said, "Yediyurappa only considered and made them minister who blackmailed him with a CD and paid huge money to him. Two are been made ministers today and one person has been made political secretary after all 3 blackmailed over a CD."
Leaders other than Basanagouda held press meets in their respective cities to register their protest. H Vishwanath expressed his displeasure in Mysuru.
Other dissenting leaders include MP Kumaraswamy from Mudigere, Satish Reddy from Bommanahalli, Shivanagowda Nayak from Devadurga, BJP MLA Thippareddy from Chitradurga, and Yediyurappa's close aid MP Renukacharya MLA from Honnali.
Other leaders include MLA Sunil Kumar from Karkala, Rajugowda from Surapura and Mahesh Kumathalli from Athani, and Muniratna from Rajarajeshwari Nagar constituency are openly attacking Yeddyurappa over cabinet expansion berth.
Basanagouda further attacked the party leadership, saying that "Loyalty, caste, seniority, region wasn't considered, the only quality which was considered was CD and blackmail. Yediyurappa completely ignored party loyal workers like us, who blackmailed him, made CD and who planned to bring down his government has got cabinet birth and made ministers today."
He alleged that Yediyurappa brought CP Yogeshwar into the cabinet "who cheated" several people in Megacity land mafia, real estate scam and dropped single Dalit MLA Nagesh from the cabinet without any reason. "This doesn't suit Yediyurappa who's known for keeping his words," Basanagouda said.
This comes Chief Minister Yediyurappa on Wednesday choose MTB Nagaraj, Umesh Katti, Aravind Limbavali, Murugesh Nirani, R Shankar, CP Yogeshwar, Angara S as new Ministers in the state Cabinet.
The decision regarding the much-awaited Cabinet expansion was taken after the Karnataka CM met Union Home Minister Amit Shah at latter's residence in Delhi on Sunday. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) National President JP Nadda and party's in-charge for Karnataka, Arun Singh were also present at the meeting.
Sources in BJP have said that "dissent team" in BJP is "planning to destabilise" Yediyurappa government.