Cabinet members include 14 leaders of the Congress and nine of the JD(S). Congress MLC Jayamala will be the state’s lone woman minister.
Bengaluru: Karnataka finally got a full-fledged cabinet Wednesday, two weeks after JD(S) chief H.D. Kumaraswamy was sworn in as chief minister at the head of a coalition government with the Congress.
Differences between the two parties over portfolio allocation had held up the cabinet expansion for over a week, with the stalemate only ending last Friday after the Congress conceded the coveted finance portfolio.
In all, 25 ministers were administered the oath of office Wednesday, giving the cabinet a total strength of 27, including the CM and his deputy, G. Parameshwara of the Congress.
Fourteen of the ministers are Congress members, while nine belong to the JD(S). The lone MLAs of the BSP and the Karnataka Pragnyavantha Janatha Party (KPJP) were sworn in as ministers too.
Governor Vajubhai Vala administered the oath of office and secrecy to the ministers at Raj Bhavan.
The new ministers
Among those sworn in was Kumaraswamy’s brother H.D. Revanna and senior Congress leader D.K. Shivakumar, who the Congress credits with keeping the party’s flock together in the chaos, including alleged horse-trading attempts, that followed the split verdict thrown up by the Karnataka assembly election.
The other inductees include JD(S) leader G.T. Deve Gowda, who defeated former chief minister Siddaramaiah in Chamundeshwari, and Congress MLC Jayamala, who will be the state’s lone woman minister.
The Congress and the JD(S) had cobbled together a post-poll alliance with their 78 and 37 MLAs, respectively, after the BJP, with 104 MLAs, said on the floor of the assembly that it could not muster enough support to form the government. Under the power-sharing arrangement, 22 Congress members were supposed to be ministers, along with 12 from the JD(S).
The Congress finalised its names in the national capital at a meeting attended by party chief Rahul Gandhi, senior Karnataka leaders Siddaramaiah, G. Parameshwara, and D.K. Shivakumar, and AICC general secretary in-charge of Karnataka, K.C. Venugopal. – PTI