Top News

Bengaluru: In the first expansion of the two-month-old Karnataka Cabinet led by Chief Minister D K Shivakumar, 19 MLAs were sworn in as ministers on Monday, August 3, even as a Congress legislator resigned from his post over his exclusion from the ministry.

Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot administered the oath of office and secrecy to new Ministers in a ceremony held at the Lok Bhavan premises here.

The Congress legislators sworn in as ministers are PM Narendraswamy (Malavalli), Shivaraj Tangadagi (Kanakagiri), Rudrappa Lamani (Haveri), K S Basavanthappa (Mayakonda), B Nagendra (Ballari rural), T Raghumurthy (Challakere), B Z Zameer Ahmed Khan (Chamarajpet), Rizwan Arshad (Shivajinagar), Santosh Lad (Kalaghatagi), Madhu Bangarappa (Soraba), Putturangashetty (Chamarajanagara), and SS Mallikarjun (Davangere North).

Ajay Singh (Jevargi), N Chaluvaraya Swamy (Nagamangala), K M Shivalinge Gowda (Arasikere), HC Balakrishna (Magadi), Basvaraj Rayareddi (Yelaburga), Vijayanand Kashappanavar (Bagalakote), and Laxman Savadi (Athani) also took the oath.

Earlier in the day, AICC general secretary (Organisation) KC Venugopal sent a communication to Shivakumar regarding the Congress high command’s approval of 20 names to be inducted into the Cabinet.

However, Gayathri Shanthegowda, an MLC, whose name was on the final list cleared by the Congress high command, was not sworn in on Monday, leaving the Karnataka cabinet without a woman minister.

Though it is unclear why Shanthegowda was not inducted into the Ministry at the last moment, party circles speculate that differences among state leaders regarding her selection caused it.

An earlier list included Bhatkal MLA Mankala Vaidya, who was a minister in the Siddaramaiah cabinet, but he was subsequently replaced by SS Mallikarjun, also a former Minister.

No official reason has been cited for replacing Vaidya.

Shivakumar’s cabinet colleagues, AICC General Secretary in-charge of Karnataka Randeep Singh Surjewala and state Congress President BK Hariprasad attended the swearing-in. However, Siddaramaiah’s absence was conspicuous.

With the long-awaited cabinet expansion finally materialising, it caused disgruntlement among the ruling Congress legislators, with a couple of ministerial aspirants who did not get a berth offering to resign. In fact, the MLA from Indi, Yashavantarayagouda V Patil submitted his resignation from his legislative post on Monday.

Shivakumar was sworn-in as the CM along with 13 ministers on June 3, following Siddaramaiah’s resignation as CM on May 28.

The sanctioned strength of Karnataka’s ministry is 34, including the CM. Following Monday’s expansion it now has one vacant berth.

Seven of these 19 new ministers were part of the previous government led by Siddaramaiah.

Interestingly, several senior legislators who were part of Siddaramaiah’s Cabinet, including H C Mahadevappa, HK Patil, Dinesh Gundu Rao, K Venkatesh, M C Sudhakar, Laxmi Hebbalkar have been left out.

Three former CMs’ children are now part of Shivakumar’s Cabinet. They are Yathindra Siddaramaiah (already a minister), Kumar Bangarappa (S Bangarappa) and Ajay Singh (N Dharam Singh).

Rudrappa Lamani was until now Deputy Speaker of the Karnataka Assembly and was officiating as the Speaker after U T Khader became a Minister during the cabinet formation on June 3. Rayareddi was the Economic Adviser to the Chief Minister during Siddaramaiah’s tenure.

Former Deputy CM Laxman Savadi and Shivalinge Gowda, who joined Congress from the BJP and JD(S) respectively, ahead of the 2023 Assembly polls, are now Ministers.

Former Minister Zameer Ahmed Khan, who faced allegations of “internal conspiracy” against the Congress candidate, during the April 9 Davanagere South assembly bypolls, has also made it to the Ministry.

B Nagendra, who is facing charges in the multi-crore scam in the Karnataka Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation, and resigned as Minister in the Siddaramaiah government in June 2024, following allegations of his involvement in the scam, has now been inducted into the ministry once again.

The Congress high command has also approved the names G S Patil to be the new Speaker of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly and A S Ponnanna to be Deputy Speaker.

The party has named Saleem Ahmed as the new Chairman of the State Legislative Council, and Umashree as the Deputy Chairperson.