Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa on Monday let go of his trusted confidante Shobha Karandlaje as Rural Development Minister, in the second public display of the compromise he has struck with a rebel group in the BJP to remain in power. Despite Yeddyurappa claiming that there would be no dropping of any of his ministers as part of the compromise deal hammered out with the rebel Reddy brothers of Bellary to keep his government on track, signs of the broad contours of the deal, including the dropping of ministers, and creation of super structures to oversee party and government issues, have already emerged.

On Monday afternoon, the only woman in Yeddyurappa’s Cabinet tendered her resignation as per instructions given by Yeddyurappa, and the CM accepted and forwarded the same to the Governor on Monday evening.

Following a meeting with the Governor to apprise him of the status of the BJP government, Yeddyurappa said he was pained to drop a hardworking minister like Karandlaje but also added that it was his fate.

Karandlaje’s removal comes on the heels of the November 6 transfer of Yeddyurappa’s principal secretary V P Baligar. The heads of both the CM’s close associates had been sought by the rebel BJP MLAs as appeasement.

Yeddyurappa had on arrival from Delhi in the early hours of Monday, following an end to the 14-day stand-off with the rebels, stated that there would be no question of dropping any of his ministers as part of the deal with the Reddy brothers. Later on Monday, however, he changed track and said a decision on the dropping of ministers or changing of portfolios would be taken by a core committee to be constituted to oversee state BJP matters, as a fallout of the 14-day strife in the state. “It has not been decided who are the ministers to be dropped. All these issues would be discussed at the core committee meeting,” he said on Monday morning.

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