From Our Special Correspondent

Daijiworld Media Network

Bengaluru, Nov 24: Even as BJP high command is yet to give the green signal to chief minister B S Yediyurappa to expand his cabinet, the chief Minister has been keeping himself busy in constituting boards and corporations for different castes and communities and appointing his close supporters in key positions with ministerial ranks and perks.

The latest appointment after the constitution of a Corporation for the development of the politically powerful Veerashaiva-Lingayat community, to which the chief minister belongs, and appointing his close confidant B S Paramashivaiah to head the same, Yediyurappa has accommodated prominent BJP MLA S R Vishwanath as chairman of the Bengaluru Development Authority.

Vishwanath is an MLA elected to the third term and represents the Yelahanka assembly constituency in the city.

It may be recalled that the chief minister has already constituted a Corporation for the development of the Maratha community, which has angered Kannada activists and provoked them into calling a Karnataka Bandh on December 5 to register their opposition.

Incidentally, the former minister and former MP of Udupi-Chikkamagaluru parliamentary constituency K Jayaprakash Hegde has been appointed as the chairman of the Karnataka Backward Classes Commission.

Political circles are agog with speculation that chief minister Yediyurappa is trying to consolidate his position by wooing influential communities and their leaders even if the party high command is attempting to dislodge him from power.