Bengaluru: The Congress government in Karnataka on Saturday completed the process of cabinet expansion by finalising names for 24 cabinet berths, sans turncoats Jagadish Shettar and Laxman Savadi, who helped tilt Lingayat vote bank in favour of the ruling party by quitting BJP.
Of the 24 legislators who took oath, 6 Lingayats and 4 Vokkaligas have been accomodated in the Siddaramaiah cabinet. As many as 3 Scheduled Castes, two Scheduled Tribes, and five from Other Backward Classes, also have been inducted.
The Muslim, Jain, Brahmin and Namdhari Reddy communities have one representative each, and only one woman, Laxmi R Hebbalkar, is part of the cabinet. She had retained her seat from Belagavi Rural by defeating BJPs Nagesh Annappa Manolkar in the recently-held assembly election.
Out of 31 districts in Karnataka, the Siddaramaiah government has no ministerial representation in Udupi, Chikkamagaluru, Madikeri, Kolar, Haveri, Ramanagara, Hassan and Bengaluru Rural.
Mangaluru and Chamrajnagar have been represented by UT Khader and C Puttarangashetty, who have been elected as Speaker and Deputy Speaker in the lower house.
The cabinet ministers who took oath are: HK Patil, Krishna Byre Gowda, N Cheluvarayaswamy, K Venkatesh, HC Mahadevappa, Eshwar Khandre, Kyathasandra N Rajanna, Dinesh Gundu Rao, Sharanabasappa Darshanapur, and Shivanand Patil.
Other ministers are: Timmapur Ramappa Balappa, SS Mallikarjun, Tangadagi Shivaraj Sangappa, Sharanaprakash Rudrappa, Patil Mankal Vaidya, Laxmi R Hebbalkar, Rahim Khan, D Sudhakar, Santhosh S Lad, NS Boseraju, BS Suresha, Madhu Bangarappa, Dr MC Sudhakar, and B Nagendra.
The oath was administered by Karnataka Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot at Raj Bhavan.
The supporters of Tanveer Sait, Rudrappa Lamani, and Laxman Savadi expressed ire against Congress for denying ministerial posts to their respective leaders.
(With UNI inputs)
