Bengaluru: A total of 24 legislators, including one woman MLA, joined the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government in Karnataka Saturday after the party high command approved the second list of ministers to be inducted into the Cabinet, taking the total strength of the Council of Ministers to 34. The swearing-in ceremony was held at the Raj Bhavan.
Earlier, eight MLAs including Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy CM D.K. Shivakumar were administered the oath of office by the Governor on 20 May.
The expansion was announced late Friday after intense deliberations among Siddaramaiah, Shivakumar, Congress national president Mallikarjun Kharge and former party presidents Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in Delhi.
However, portfolio allocation is still being discussed as ministers are lobbying for important departments, those aware of the developments told ThePrint. “It will probably happen today or tomorrow,” Siddaramaiah told media persons in Bengaluru Saturday morning.
Lakshmi Hebbalkar is the sole woman legislator in the 34-member Cabinet. The Congress had fielded 11 women candidates this time, of which four won their seats. Even during his 2013-18 stint as the CM, Siddaramaiah’s Cabinet had one woman minister.
The previous Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in the state, headed by B.S. Yediyurappa and later by Basavaraj Bommai, also had only one woman Cabinet minister, Shashikala Jolle.
Meanwhile, among other prominent Congress leaders who made the cut are Krishna Byre Gowda, Eshwar Khandre, H.C. Mahadevappa, Madhu Bangarappa, S.S. Mallikarjun and Dinesh Gundu Rao.
The second list comprises four members from the Vokkaliga community, six Lingayats, five from communities classified as backward classes, one each from Scheduled Caste left and right divisions, one from Bhovi community (SC-others) two from Scheduled Tribe, and one each from Muslim, Jain, Brahmin and Namdhari Reddy communities.
“I was confident of becoming a minister but we understand the challenges since all factors have to be weighed in. There are 135 legislators and I have been given an opportunity,” Madhu Bangarappa told reporters in Bengaluru Saturday.
The new Congress government remains true to the dominant caste theory in which Lingayats and Vokkaligas continue to get the highest representation in the government. There are seven Lingayats and six Vokkaligas, including Shivakumar, in the new Cabinet.
Several prominent leaders from Karnataka who have been camping in Delhi to lobby for ministerial berths, however, missed out. B.K. Hariprasad, the former deputy Leader of the Opposition in the Upper House, and R.V. Deshpande, another senior members of the legislature, did not make the cut. Neither did Lingayat leader Laxman Savadi, a former BJP minister who switched to the Congress just before the 10 May polls.
Supporters of six-time MLA Tanveer Sait held protests in Mysuru Saturday after the legislator from Narasimharaja was left out of the Cabinet.
Sources within the Congress said some of the leaders have been assured that they will be accommodated in the Cabinet reshuffle after the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
(Edited by Smriti Sinha)
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