Though there has been speculation of a possible change of guard in the BJP-led Government in Karnataka, the party central leadership is learnt to have taken a firm decision of not changing the Chief Minister.
“There is no question of changing the Chief Minister at this juncture,” a source in the BJP central leadership told The Hindu.
There have been rumours of changing the Chief Minister, bolstered by the party’s experiment of leadership change in other States.
Sources in the BJP high command, however, said leadership change in Karnataka is not on the agenda of the central leadership especially when just around a year is left for elections to the State Assembly.
Expansion only?
Meanwhile, the BJP high command is learnt to be thinking of allowing only a ministerial expansion in Karnataka. “We are in favour of a ministerial expansion. But it is not possible to fix a timeframe,” the source said. “For now, we are not considering the idea of dropping any Ministers.”
Meanwhile, Union Home Minister and BJP’s key strategist Amit Shah wound up his visit to the State, which is the second in the last one month, on Tuesday without making any formal political announcement.
Though he participated in various official programmes, including the valedictory of the national-level university games, his political itinerary was confined to participating in a lunch hosted by the Chief Minister for the party legislators and MPs at his residence.
No office-bearers’ meeting
Mr. Shah surprised everyone by cancelling the office-bearers’ meeting. There was no clarity among the party’s State leaders about the reason for the cancellation of the meeting. While some think that paucity of time and Basava Jayanti celebrations could be the reason, some others argue that Mr. Shah may have felt that there was no need to hold a bigger meeting presently.
Unlike his visit to the State prior to the earlier polls, Mr. Shah desisted from making any political announcements this time. This has increased anxiety among ministerial aspirants.
