Yediyurappa doles out Cabinet rank to 17 MLAs

Bengaluru, Dec 17 (IANS) In an apparent bid to buy peace, Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa on Wednesday offered Cabinet ranks to as many as 13 BJP legislators who are heading various boards and corporations.Four legislators have been given Minister of State rank, according to notifications issued by the government.Many of these 17 legislators were lobbying hard to become ministers in Yediyurappa's Cabinet, which is due for an expansion or reshuffle.According to the sources close to Yediyurappa, by giving them Cabinet and MoS ranks, Yediyurappa is said to have stemmed growing discontent in the party and also sent a signal that they cannot be accommodated in his council of ministers.The MLAs with a cabinet rank are as follows: M Chandrappa, Duryodhan Mahalingappa Aihole, Nehru Olekar, Narasimha Nayak (Raju Gowda), K. Shivanagouda Nayak, Kalakappa Bandi, Shankar Patil Munenakoppa, K. Madal Virupakshappa, Siddu Savadi, A.S. Patil Nadahalli, Dattatraya C. Patil Revoor, P. Rajeev and S.V. Ramachandra.The four MLAs with MoS Rank are: Rajkumar Patil Telkur, C.S. Niranjan Kumar, A. S. Jayaram and N. Linganna.Yediyurappa also gave a Cabinet rank to his media advisor N. Bhrungeesh.
--IANS nbh/pgh