CP Yogeshwar to get cabinet entry, Eshwarappa, Jarkiholi uncertain

Sachidananda Gautam

Bengaluru: Karnataka MLC and former minister C P Yogeshwar will be inducted into the cabinet when Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai expands his team after Diwali, News Trail has reliably learnt. However, the reinduction of Ramesh Jarkiholi and K S Eswarappa into the ministry is not certain, sources said.

Yogeshwar refused to comment on his cabinet entry when News Trail contacted him. “If I get an opportunity, I will work hard to make the party stronger in the Old Mysuru region,” he said.

The muchtalked about cabinet expansion is all set to be a reality with Bommai receiving the nod from party high command recently. Yogeshwar, who is said to have played a key role in managing Congress- Janata Dal (Secular) rebel MLAs during the political turmoil in the state in 2019, was inducted into the cabinet by B S Yediyurappa.

But he was dropped when Bommai came to power. Sources said there are talks of overhauling the ministry on the lines of the Gujarat experiment. “Yogeshwar will be included because he is influential in the old Mysuru region, especially in Bengaluru Rural, Ramananagar, Kanakapura and Mandya constituencies,” said a senior BJP leader from New Delhi.

“Only Yogeshwar can take on JD (S) leader and former CM HD Kumaraswamy, who has already declared that he will contest from Channapatna,” the source said. Yogeshwar is now touring the constituency, focussing on pending development works, ‘elephant menace’, allocation of houses to poor and fund release for Shikshakara Bhavana. Bommai had announced that he would travel to Delhi to discuss cabinet expansion.

However, he told reporters “to wait and watch” when they asked him on the re-induction of Jarkiholi and Eshwarappa, who had resigned following allegations.