BJP government to assume office today

Thousands of BJP activists are expected to throng the venue to witness the party taking over the reins of administration, for which the city police have made elaborate security arrangements. A galaxy of front-ranking BJP leaders, including party president Rajnath Singh, L K Advani, Arun Jaitley, who formulated the winning strategy, Venkaiah Naidu, Sushma Swaraj and others are expected to be present during the ceremony.

 

According to indications, a 15-20 member ministry will take oath along with Yeddyurappa, who led the saffron surge, which saw the decimation of its rival JD(S) and shattered the dream of the Congress to return to power. BJP, winning 110 seats out of 224 and falling short by three for a simple majority, defeated the designs by Congress and JD(S) to block six independents from lending support by successfully netting them. Sources in the party said to ensure stability of the government, it might reward some of the independents with ministerial berths and is even not averse to accommodate all of them.

Governor Rameshwar Thakur will administer the oath of office and secrecy to the new ministers. Those expected to join the Yeddyurappa ministry are Jagadish Shettar, K S Eshwarappa, Shobha Karandlaje, Govind Karjol, C M Udasi, B Sreeramulu, S A Ravindranath, V S Acharya, Ramachandra Gowda, Shankaralinge Gowda, Ramdas, Lakshman Savadi, Vishwveshwara Hegde Kageri, R Ashok, S Suresh Kumar, Yogish Bhat and Krishnaiah Shetty.

Katta Subramanya Naidu, a close confidant of Yeddyurappa also finds place in the first list, but will be inducted later as he was away from city now. Mumtaz Ali Khan has been tipped to be the minority representative to be inducted in consonance with the party assurance to provide representation to one of the members of this community. BJP could not field a minority community candidate in the election.