Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru (SP)

Mangaluru, Jul 23: If signals emanating from various sources are any indications, Ramanath Rai is likely to be made home minister of Karnataka within a few days. Rai is currently minister for forest, environment and ecology. Home department, which is currently with the chief minister, is in urgent need of an independent minister because of the fact that the department is hogging limelight for wrong reasons like tension in Dakshina Kannada, irregularities in prisons etc.

There were reports that K J George, to whom the chief minister wanted to entrust the department back after G Parameshwara demitted office to become full time KPCC president, and criminal investigation department gave the minister for Bengaluru development a clean chit in Ganapathy suicide case, showed reluctance to take this responsibility. It was said that although Shivakumar is interested in accepting this ministry, the chief minister is averse to the idea of making him the home minister. There is information that Ramanath Rai got call from party high command on Saturday, duly asking him to accept the ministry if home portfolio is offered to him. The high command also reportedly told Rai to make good groundwork for managing home department efficiently,

Sources close to Rai said that the minister did not give his nod to the offer. He said he will consider the suggestion, without giving any concrete assurance. Rai, who has been blamed often by BJP and several other outfits for fueling trouble in Dakshina Kannada district, has a golden opportunity at hand to handle the matter with an iron hand by getting officials of his choice here.

The media houses which contacted Rai got the reply that it is an internal matter of the party and that the media will come to know in due course about everything. Congress party wants to repeat its performance of last assembly election in which the party had bagged seven out of eight assembly seats from Dakshina Kannada district by defeating some former ministers and MLAs of BJP.

Rai is backed by the experience of having functioned as home minister when Veerappa Moily was the chief minister. He has rich experience and has the capacity to effectively stymie the opposition. Therefore it is said the party leaders are interested to promote him to a key department. The chief minister too wants to get relieved of the home portfolio which is currently with him.