Bengaluru (Karnataka):Twenty-four Congress MLAs took oath on Saturday at the Raj Bhavan as part of Karnataka's cabinet expansion, days after Siddaramaiah took oath as Karnataka Chief Minister with D K Shivakumar as his deputy with ten cabinet ministers on May 20.
Ministers N. Rajanna, Dinesh Gundu Rao, Sharanabasappa Darshanapur, Shivanand Patil, HK Patil, Krishna Byregowda, N Chaluvarayaswamy, K Venkateshtake, Dr HC Mahadevappa, and Eshwar Khandre were sworn in by Governor Thawar Chand Gehlot at the Raj Bhavan on Saturday. Karnataka can have a total of 34 ministers in its cabinet.
The Congress Cabinet figures six Lingayats, four Vokkaligas, three from Scheduled Castes, two from Scheduled Tribes and five from Other Backward Communities -- Kuruba, Raju, Maratha, Ediga and Mogaveera, and one Brahmin. In terms of region-wise representation, seven ministers each are from Old Mysuru and Kalyana Karnataka regions, six from Kittur Karnataka region and two from central Karnataka.
An official statement from the Chief Minister's Office said that Siddaramaiah has balanced caste, region-wise representation as well as senior and junior MLAs in his new Cabinet. The statement also mentioned that the cabinet will have eight Lingayats, five Vokkaligas, including Shivakumar and nine Scheduled Caste ministers. The portfolios for the ministers who will be sworn in will be announced by Saturday evening, State Minister K H Muniyappa said.
Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar had intense deliberations with top central Congress leaders, including AICC general secretaries K C Venugopal and Randeep Surjewala to decide the names of the 24 Karnataka MLAs who will be inducted into the Siddaramaiah cabinet. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and former party chief Rahul Gandhi gave the final nod to the list.
Though differences came up between Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar over the names of the ministers, they were sorted out later on during the discussions. All the central Congress leaders as well as Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu and his Jharkhand counterpart Hemant Soren left for Bengaluru for the oath-taking ceremony on Saturday.
