Bengaluru, Jul 31: Karnataka Chief Minister Basvaraj Bommai Today said he would finalise the ministry formation on his second visit to Delhi.

“Yesterday, I met (National BJP President JP Nadda). Today, I did not meet (him). Mostly he would send a message in the next two days. I have to visit again (to Delhi). (I) will finalise the cabinet,” he told reporters at Devanahalli in the outskirts of Bengaluru when he was asked if Nadda had contacted him.

In the morning, Bommai had said that he would be contacting Nadda over the issue. However, the meeting could not take place as per Bommai’s statement.

He however did not give more details on the list of probable ministers’ names when he was asked to answer a related question. “How is it possible to say what we are going to do (preparing the list of probable ministers)?” he asked.

Yesterday, he said the central BJP leadership has taken the issue seriously in the wake of the state facing Covid and severe floods.

As a chief minister, Bommai was on his first visit to Delhi and met Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Home Minister Amit Shah, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, and Nadda, and expressed his gratitude for choosing him as the chief minister and sought blessings from them.

Mekedatu Row

Earlier, Bommai said his government will go ahead with its plans to build the Mekedatu dam despite the Tamil Nadu BJP unit’s plans to go on a one-day hunger protest against the project.

“They (Tamil Nadu BJP) are doing their work. That has nothing to do with us. Annamalai holding a hunger protest is none of my concern. My concern is we have the rights over Mekdatu’s water. We have already prepared the DPR. After getting approval, we are going to go ahead even if someone goes on hunger protest,” he told reporters when he was asked to comment on the issue.

The Mekedatu project is a bone of contention between Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

Annamalai yesterday had declared a one-day hunger protest on August 5 at Thanjavur in order to pressure and prevent Karnataka from constructing the dam at Mekedatu. He said it would be a great threat to lower riparian states like Tamil Nadu.

He claimed they are protesting for the welfare of the people of the state through Karnataka is ruled by the BJP.

Yesterday, Bommai had led a delegation of MPs and Union Ministers from Karnataka to Jal Shakti Minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and gave a memorandum, demanding clearance of the several water resources projects including the Mekedatu project and upper Krishna project.

During the meeting, Bommai asked Shekhawat to approve the DPR for the construction of the dam at Mekedatu.

Meeting With Nirmala Sitharaman

Bommai also met Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and sought immediate release of a Rs 18,000 crore loan to address the financial situation of the state.

Karnataka is facing a funds crunch due to increased spending on Covid-19 care arising from the second wave of infections and increasing committed expenditure.

The biggest burden for the government is employees’ salaries while commercial tax collection has nosedived from Rs 10,300 crore in March to a mere Rs 4,304 crore in April. Revenues also had plummeted due to lockdowns.

Bommai also sought pending GST compensation dues to Karnataka. (UNI)