With the House committee giving a clean chit to former minister J. Krishna Palemar in the “Porngate” episode, his supporters in the ruling BJP are demanding that he be restored his Cabinet berth when the Sadananda Gowda ministry is expanded.
Mr Palemar along with two other ministers—C.C. Patil and Laxman Savadi— had quit after they were accused of being involved in a porn viewing episode in the Legislative Assembly. Since then, Dakshina Kannada district has been left without an in-charge minister. With the House panel exonerating him and Mr Patil, his supporters want Palemar to be reinducted in the ministry. They are pinning their hopes on the recent announcement by the CM that he intends to expand his Cabinet shortly. “The only allegation against Mr Palemar was related to Porngate. Now that no charges are pending against him, he should be given back his post and more so because he has undertaken several developmental activities in the district,” a senior BJP leader said.
If the party does not agree to this, there is a possibility of Sullia MLA S. Angara getting a Cabinet berth from DK district. The party is also searching for a suitable minister from Udupi district after the death of former higher education minister Dr V.S. Acharya.“Kundapur MLA Haladi Srinivas Shetty is the first choice and enjoys good support in the party. He is from the Bunt community. With the Bunts uniting against the BJP and supporting Congress candidate Jayaprakash Hegde in the recent Udupi-Chikmagalur Lok Sabha bypoll, the BJP must be hoping to regain their support by inducting Mr Shetty,” BJP sources said.