Ministerial aspirants lobby as Kumaraswamy struggles to save

Ministerial aspirants startedlobbying Tuesday, with Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamyreportedly planning cabinet expansion or reshuffle in a bid to savethe Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) coalition government in Karnataka.

The development came as Kumaraswamy himself swung into action by personally meeting disgruntled legislators, mainly from the Congress and made attempts to pacify them.

Senior Congress legislator, V Muniyappa, who is also political secretary to the Chief Minister, met Kumaraswamy andis said to have expressed his desire to become minister this time.

"I have seniority, I have six terms, I have experience both administrative and political, so why can't I claim?" Muniyappa told reporters in response to a question.

Claiming that he has not made any demand for ministerial post to the Chief Minister during the meeting, he said "I have not spoken to the CM about it, I have come for a discussion aboutconstituency, but I have asked my party about it."

Meanwhile, ...