K'taka Cabinet expansion: Ramalinga Reddy's supporters protest outside Cong office

Supporters of Congress MLA and former Karnataka minister Ramalinga Reddy on Saturday protested outside the Congress office demanding Reddy to be made a minister.

The protest came ahead of the expansion and reshuffle of Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy-led coalition government in Karnataka, which is expected to take place here on Saturday evening.

State Minister and Karnataka Prajnyavantha Janatha Party MLA R Shankar said that he would have to "reconsider" his support to the coalition "if the Congress did not grant him a place in the Cabinet."

"I am getting reports that I will be dropped from the list of Cabinet ministers, who are going to take the oath. When they did not call me for the Congress Legislative Party (CLP) meeting, I realised that the Congress is ditching me. The BJP hasn't contacted me yet, but if my name is not considered for the Cabinet, I will rethink," he told ANI.

As per the reports, the Cabinet expansion-cum-reshuffle is being done keeping in view the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Former Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah on December 5 had said that two MLAs from JD(S) and six MLAs from the Congress will be inducted in the Cabinet.

The two parties-Congress and Janata Dal-Secular-had formed a post-poll alliance in Karnataka in May this year to prevent the BJP from forming the government. Though the BJP formed the government under the leadership of BS Yeddyurappa, he resigned as the chief minister without seeking the trust of the House. BJP, despite being the single the single largest party, had failed to manage the magic figure in the 224-member House with an effective strength of 221.