Karnataka: Siddaramaiah is still boss in Kumaraswamy’s government

The JD(S) and Congress ironed out its differences and put in place a Cabinet. The new council of ministers would be sworn in on June 6 at 2 pm. Now it is up to the respective parties to decide on who gets what. While this is the first of the hurdles that the coalition has passed, the next would be to ensure that the government runs smoothly without any hurdles.

There are bound to be disgruntled elements in both sides and the two parties would have to ensure that they do not cause trouble. While the two parties have announced that they would fight together the 2019 elections, the fact remains that both would look to outshine the other. Each party would want a considerable amount of seats to have a better bargaining capacity in 2019, if a third front does become a reality. The JD(S) would be hoping for at least 11 seats in the Lok Sabha polls in 2019. Both parties hope to keep the ship sailing smoothly at least until 2019.

To put things in place, a coordination committee was announced by both parties. The committee is Congress heavy with three members while the JD(S) has two. The committee comprises, Siddaramaiah, Dr. G Parameshwar and KC Venugopal of the Congress, while the JD(S) list has H D Kumaraswamy and Danish Ali. The panel would meet once a month to iron out any differences, if any. The committee would probably have to be consulted before Kumaraswamy could take any major policy decisions. Monitoring the entire process would be Siddaramaiah, who had quit the JD(S) to join the Congress.

It is said that the JD(S) was not entirely happy with Siddaramaiah heading the panel. The Congress however stuck to its guns and did not budge on this. Having just been a chief minister, he is well versed with the administration and the immediate challenges the state faces and hence he was the best candidate for the job, the Congress felt. The panel would also oversee appointments and nominations to the various boards and corporations. Two-third of the total posts would go to the Congress, whole JD(S) will get one-third. Siddaramaiah while speaking about the panel said that it would meet to deliberate on decisions to be taken by the government.