Daijiworld Media Network - Bengaluru (SP)

Bengaluru, Jan 31: Karnataka chief minister, B S Yediyurappa, was confident before leaving for New Delhi, that he would be able to complete the ministry expansion process today, but his confidence looks unfounded as the ministry expansion issue continues to get entangled with various issues.

Even though Yediyurappa, who went to New Delhi with a list of new ministers and held discussions with BJP top leaders, the talks remained inconclusive. He will hold discussions with the leaders again on Friday morning. Yediyurappa told his close ones here that if he succeeds in getting the approval of the national leaders of the party for the list of new minsters today, the expansion will happen on Sunday.

On the other hand, ministerial aspirants are becoming impatient. They even expect defeated candidates H Vishwanath, and M T B Nagaraj, to be accommodated in the ministry. Chamarajanagar MP Srinivas Prasad too said he hopes that the chief minister would be able to keep up his promise.

There is pressure from central leaders to include Aravind Limbali from Bengaluru in the cabinet but the city already is represented by several ministers including S T Somashekhar, Byrathi Basavaraj and Gopalayya. With the existing three ministers representing Bengaluru, the number will go up to six. If Muniratna wins from Rajarajeshwari Nagar constituency bypoll, he too will be an additional minster from the city. Therefore, to accommodate Limbavali, an existing minister may have to be dropped and the issue has become tricky. Moreover, Yediyurappa has already promised ministerial position to senior BJP leader Umesh Katti.