All is not well in state Congress, with dissidence brewing on a daily basis against Siddaramaiah’s government by disgruntled MLAs for cabinet posts. But many ministerial aspirants lining up the queue, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has decided to set aside the cabinet expansion by at least a month.

Sources close to Nasheman, say two of the reasons, why the CM does not wants to expand his cabinet, is firstly his aversion to appoint a deputy CM, which has been a long waiting demand of State Congress president G. Parameshwara, and secondly is his self reasons to single handedly control state politics for a longer time.

However, with the results of the recently concluded bypoll elections coming in favour of Congress, Siddaramaiah has effectively consolidated his powers, with even Congress general secretary in-charge of state, Digvijay Singh saying, he would leave it to the CM on when to expand the cabinet.

The biggest looser in this power struggle at least for now, seems to be G. Parameshwara, who left with no apparent choice, has given up his demands, following the decision of Congress high command.

“I have been a sincere party worker and will continue to be so throughout my career. I will stick to the high command’s decision in this regard,” he told reporters on seeking his reaction to the reports that the central Congress leadership was not in favour of creating the post of deputy chief minister in the state.

Though this has come as a disappointment, Parameshwara might strike at the right juncture, after being low for some time. One has to keep in mind that, he is an old party loyalist, and Siddaramaiah is still considered an outsider by many. Sources close to Nasheman, say that, MLAs left out of the cabinet may join forces to strengthen Parameshwara to unseat CM Siddaramaiah.

With these two camps cat fighting each other, one interesting individual to watch out for would be DK Shivkumar (DKS). An old party loyalist, DKS belongs to the powerful Vokkaliga community, who might well be a lone survival in the struggle for power between two leaders from the backward class.