Congress seeks to strike caste balance in Karnataka; cabinet has eight Lingayats, six Vokkaligas

Bengaluru (Karnataka) [India], May 27 (ANI): The Congress government in Karnataka was expanded on Saturday with 24 MLAs taking oath as ministers and the party seeking to give representation to various castes and groups.

The oath was administered by Governor Thawar Chand Gehlot at Raj Bhavan in Bangalore in the presence of Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar.
The new cabinet has six members from the Vokkaliga community, eight Lingayats, four from the Scheduled Caste community, three scheduled tribes, two from the Muslim community and one from the Christian community. The Maratha and Brahmin community has also got representation.

Twenty-three MLAs took oath in Kannada while one took oath in English. While most MLAs took oath in the name of God, some took names of deities and revered figures.

With this cabinet expansion, the Congress government in Karnataka has reached the full strength of 34 ministers including the Chief Minister.

NS Bosaraju, who took oath as the minister is neither MLA nor MLC and is considered a loyalist of Siddaramaiah. However, senior leaders and former ministers like RV Deshpande, Basavaraja Rayareddy, TB Jayachandra, considered the followers of Siddaramaiah, could not find a place in the cabinet. NA Harris, considered a loyalist of Shivakumar, also didn’t make it to the cabinet.

Members from Banjara community, which is considered to have supported Congress during the polls, did not found a place in the council of ministers. Rudrappa Lamani, the former minister and a leader from Banjara community, who was hopeful of finding a cabinet berth, could not make it. His supporters alleged that his name was there till last night but did not make it to the final list.

HK Patil was the first to take the oath. Nagamangala MLA, N Chaluvarayaswamy, a loyalist of Shivakumar also took oath. Batarayanapur MLA and former minister Krishnabyre Gowda oath as minister. He was apparently upset after his name didn’t appear in the first list of ministers.

Senior politician and MLA from T Narasipur, HC Mahadevappa, is considered a close associate of Siddaramaiah and comes from the Old Mysore region. He served as PWD minister in Siddaramaiah’s cabinet from 2013-2018.

Among other experienced leaders who took the oath was Balki MLA Ishwar Khandre, who served as a minister earlier and is the working president of Karnataka Congress. Former Minister and Gandhi Nagar MLA Dinesh Gundurao and Shahapur MLA and former minister Sharanbasappa Darshanapura took oath of office. He served as a minister in 2006.

Kalaghatagi MLA Santosh Lad had also served as a minister earlier. Hebbal MLA Byrathi Suresh, considered a loyalist of Siddaramaiah, also took the oath of office.

Kanakagiri MLA Shivraja Thangadagi was the Minor Irrigation Minister in the Siddaramaiah government. Sedam MLA Sharan Prakash was the Medical Education Minister in the previous Siddaramaiah government.

Mudhola MLA RB Thimmapura earlier served as Minister of Excise, Sugar, Ports and Internal Irrigation.

Kyathanasandra N Rajanna (KN Rajanna) took oath in the name of Buddha, Basava, Ambedkar and Valmiki. He is an MLA from Madhugiri.

Basavan Bagewadi MLA Shivananda Patil took oath in the name of Anna Basavanna. In 2018, he held a ministerial position in the HD Kumaraswamy cabinet.

Davangere Uttar Constituency MLA SS Mallikarjuna took oath in the name of Lord Kalleswara. He is the son of Shamanur Sivashankarappa, the most senior member of the Legislative Assembly.

Bhatkal MLA Mankalu Vaidya became a minister for the first time. Among the new ministers, former CM Bangarappa’s son and MLA from Soraba Madhu Bangarappa comes from the Ediga community.

Bidar North Constituency MLA Rahim Khan took oath in English. He earlier worked as Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs.

Hiriyur MLA D Sudhakar took oath in the name of Lord Teru Malleshwar. He served as Social Welfare Minister in 2008.

Others who were sworn in as ministers were Chintamani MLA MC Sudhakar and Bellary Rural MLA B Nagendra.

Siddaramaiah took oath as the Chief Minister on May 2 along with DK Shivakumar who took Deputy Chief Minister. Eight other ministers were also sworn in.

The Karnataka cabinet was expanded after the Chief Minister and Shivakumar held consultations with the party’s central leadership.

Congress bagged 135 seats in the May 10 elections for the 224-member Karnataka Assembly ousting the ruling BJP, which got 66 seats in the southern state. (ANI)