Even After Cabinet Expansion, DK Shivakumar Government Yet To Take Off Amid Portfolio Delay & Speaker Row

Bengaluru: It took two months for the Karnataka Congress government to have a near complete cabinet after the leadership change in the State, where the present Chief Minister D K Shivakumar took over the reigns from his predecessor Siddaramaiah.

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However, the chaos created by cabinet expansion by the aspirants, non allocation of the portfolios to the new ministers and the incomplete administration of the Legislative Assembly and the Legislative Council has left the governance in limbo.

Eyebrows went up when the list of 20 ministers to be inducted into the cabinet came from AICC General Secretary K C Venugopal. However, there were two amendments before the oath taking ceremony actually took place and the name of the lone woman representative in the Cabinet -- Gayathri Shanthegowda was struck down.

Soon after the minister took oath, the Chief Minister allotted them the in-charge districts and asked them to tour those districts to study drought situation and prepare reports. However, two days after the oath taking took place, the portfolios are yet to be announced. According to sources in the government, the portfolio allotments may take another day or two.

Meanwhile, a controversy broke out when the letter also mentioned the name of G S Patil as new Speaker of the Legislative Assembly and A S Ponnanna as the Deputy Speaker. Besides, the letter also directed that MLC Saleem Ahamed should be the Chairman of the Legislative Council and the Deputy Chairperson be Umashree. The opposition parties came down heavily on the government stating that the four posts were Constitutional posts and it should not be decided by the political parties.

At the moment, the posts of Legislative Assembly Speaker and Deputy Speaker are vacant. The post of Deputy Chairman of the Legislative Council is also vacant, since the previous Deputy Chairman M K Pranesh resigned after the court ruled that his election was invalid.

The Chairman of the Legislative Council Basavaraj Horatti was elected during the previous BJP government and has refused to resign despite a couple of requests from the government. The Congress now has a majority in the upper house and is contemplating to move a no-confidence motion during the forthcoming Legislature sessions beginning on August 13.

However, a no-confidence motion against the presiding officers of the houses has a stringent clause, as it does not rely on the popular mandate. The rule says that the presiding officer should be facing serious charges like corruption, misusing the official power or misconduct against him, if the house has to move a no-confidence motion against him.

Basavaraj Horatti is eighth time MLC and the senior most in the house. So far, he was never caught in any kind of controversies, even when he was a minister. Since he is refusing to step down even after repeated requests, the government is in a fix to remove him from the post.