New Delhi: Ahead of the much-awaited Karnataka Cabinet expansion to be held later in the day, the Congress high command cleared the ministers’ list on Monday, August 3.
According to the list, the Congress high command has cleared 20 names. The leaders who made the cut are: PM Narendraswamy, Lakshman Savadi, Shivaraj Thangadagi, Rudrappa Lamani, KS Basavanthappa, B Nagendra, Raghumoorthy, Zameer Ahmed Khan, Rizwan Arshad, Santhosh Lad, Madhu Bangarappa, Puttrangashetty, Mankal Vaidya, and Ajay Singh.
The other leaders on the list are Chaluvaraya Swamy, Shivalinge Gowda, HC Balakrishna, Basavraj Rayareddi, Gayathri Shanthegowda, and Vijayanand Kashnappanavar.
Last week in Delhi, CM DK Shivakumar and KPCC chief BK Hariprasad had discussed the expansion issue with Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge, AICC general secretaries KC Venugopal and Randeep Singh Surjewala.
Six of these 20 new ministers to be inducted were part of the previous government led by Siddaramaiah.
Interestingly, several senior legislators who were part of Siddaramaiah’s Cabinet, including H C Mahadevappa, H K Patil, Dinesh Gundu Rao, K Venkatesh, M C Sudhakar, Laxmi Hebbalkar have been left out.
Gayathri Shanthegowda, whom the Supreme Court’s recent verdict declared elected from the Chikkamagaluru Local Authorities’ Constituency, will be the lone women member in the Cabinet. Her election followed the court setting aside BJP’s M K Pranesh’s election to the Legislative Council in December 2021.
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, who will be inducted into the Ministry, was until now Deputy Speaker of the Karnataka Assembly and was officiating as the Speaker after U T Khader became the minister during the Cabinet formation on June 3. While 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 BJP and JD(S) respectively, ahead of the 2023 Assembly polls, are also becoming 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 list.
B Nagendra, who is facing charges in the multi-crore scam in Karnataka Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation, and had to resign as minister in Siddaramaiah government in June 2024, following allegations of his involvement in the scam, is now being inducted into the Ministry once again.
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