BANGALORE: With Chief Minister DV Sadananda Gowda expected to expand his Cabinet on Thursday, the second one in a gap of just three days, hectic lobbying is on in the camps of former chief minister B S Yeddyurappa and RDPR Minister Jagadish Shettar.There are 12 vacancies in the Cabinet and Gowda is likely to fill 8-10 berths in Thursday’s expansion.Meanwhile, the Bellary Reddys, after failing to make it to the Cabinet in Monday’s expansion following their indictment in the Lokayukta report on illegal mining, are camping in Delhi to pressurise party bosses to appoint either them or their nominees as ministers.Several meetings were held between the Reddys and the national leaders in Delhi. The Chief Minister, who is also in Delhi, attended one of the meetings chaired by BJP national president Nitin Gadkari and attended by L K Advani, Rajnath Singh, Arun Jaitley, Dharmendra Pradhan, Sushma Swaraj and the Reddys. The Reddys are said to be pointing at the induction of V Somanna, who was also named in the Lokayukta report, to further their cause. Till Tuesday night, the issue had remained unresolved.Meanwhile, hectic lobbying is on in the state for ministerial berths.According to senior party sources, the names of Balachandra Jarkiholi, Anand Asnotikar, Varthur Prakash and C P Yogeshwar have already been cleared by the party.The BJP is under compulsion to make Varthur and Yogeshwar ministers. While Varthur, an independent MLA from Kolar, was assured of a berth during the trust vote last year, the party had announced that Yogeshwar would be made minister if he won from Chennapatna. For the remaining 3-5 posts, there are several aspirants, including C T Ravi, D N Jeevaraj, Suresh Gowda, Sogadu Shivanna, Aravind Limbavali, among others.
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