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Bangalore, May 14 : A day after the apex court restored the membership to 16 rebel Karnataka lawmakers, the dominant topic of discussion in political circles here was what is on offer for their support to Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, whose fate depends on them.
The consensus seemed to be cabinet berths or chairmanship of state-run boards or corporations with cabinet rank to boot, as in the past too Yeddyurappa had offered such positions to make peace with dissidents.
Several Congress and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) lawmakers wooed by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to quit their assembly seats and their parties and join the party's first government in south India were made heads of various boards and corporations as a reward.
In fact, Yeddyurappa began his rule in May 2008 by making five of the six Independents cabinet ministers as their support helped him and the BJP to form the government.
The BJP had won 110 seats in the 225-member assembly that includes one nominated member. The support of five Independents helped the party to cross the magic number of 113 for the majority in the house.
Yeddyurapa had incurred the wrath of several long-time BJP members for not making them ministers or giving them plum postings on state-run boards and corporations while offering these positions to Congress and JD-S defectors.
To the chagrin of Yeddyurappa, eight of these - three from the Congress and JD-S and five Independents whom he made cabinet ministers - were among the 16 who were disqualified by the assembly speaker on Oct 11, 2010, for withdrawing support to him.
Now that their membership has been resrored by the Supreme Court, it is back to the drawing board for Yeddyurappa to juggle his ministry and search for vacant slots on boards and corporations to win back the support of the rebels.
'Horse-trading to woo the 11 BJP legislators has already begun,' JD-S leader in the assembly H.D. Revanna and party spokesperson and legislator Y.S.V. Datta charged at a press meet here Saturday.
Their charge came even as their state party president and former chief minister H.D. Kumaraswamy reached New Delhi to talk to the rebels against backing Yeddyurappa.
Kumaraswamy, however, denied in New Delhi that he was meeting the rebels to win them over. 'I have come here (New Delhi) for my work and not to meet the rebels,' he told reporters.
Yeddyurappa has a daunting task on hand as he has not only to win back the support of the rebels but also convince them not to move against Speaker K.G. Bopaiah for disqualifying them ahead of the Oct 11 trust vote.
Bopaiah's action has been severely criticised by the Supreme Court.
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