Bengaluru, May 29: Despite Congress's efforts to mollify its sulking legislators, the political crisis in Karnataka is deepening with party loyalists now demanding cabinet berths. The Congress party tried to placate rebels by offering them ministries and ended up making party loyalists upset. Two Congress MLAs and one Independent legislator on Tuesday threw their hats in the ring for ministerial berths.

MLAs Ajay Singh, V Muniyappa and H Nagesh questioned the Congress party's decision to reward rebels with ministries and asked why they shouldn't be made ministers. "The party should consider rewarding loyal MLAs. But, unfortunately, rebels are being rewarded," Singh told reporters. The legislator also claimed that Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders contacted him to switch side but he would not leave the Congress party. Congress-JD(S) Faces Fresh Scare Post Lok Sabha Election Drubbings, Two Rebel MLAs Meet Top BJP Leader.

Muniyappa and Nagesh met Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy and express their desire to become ministers. Besides them, Jarkiholi, BC Patil, B Nagendra and Bheema Naik are also in the race to become ministers. Meanwhile, Kumaraswamy assured Congress MLAs ST Somashekhar and Byrathi Basavaraj that they would be made ministers. Currently, there are three vacancies in the cabinet — two of which under the JD(S) (an ally in the government) quota.

Senior Congress leaders held a meeting on Wednesday to save the coalition government. The rift within Congress resurfaced after the Congress-JD(S) rout in the Lok Sabha elections. Congress won only one to retain Bangalore Rural and lost 20 seats, while the JD(S) won only one, retaining Hassan and losing 6 seats. A resurgent BJP won a record 25 seats across the state. BJP Offered Rs 60 Crore, Ministerial Post to One ‘JDS Person’, Says MLA KM Shivalinge Gowda.

A fractured verdict in the May 2018 state assembly elections threw up a hung Assembly, with the BJP winning 104, Congress 79, excluding speaker, and JD-S 37 and one each by the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), a regional party and an independent. The BJP fell short of 9 seats for a simple majority in the 225-member assembly.

To keep the BJP out of power, Congress and JD(S) forged a post-poll alliance to form the fledgeling coalition government on May 23, 2018, sharing the cabinet posts in the ratio of 22 for the Congress and 12 for the JD-S in the 34-member ministry.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on May 29, 2019 12:44 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).