After several days of internal tussle in the Congress party with regard to the chief ministerial pick for Karnataka, Siddaramaiah has been sworn in as the 24th chief minister and D K Shivakumar, the KPCC chief has been sworn in as the deputy chief minister of the state on Saturday.
Along with them, 8 others have been sworn in as ministers of the state cabinet. Zameer Ahmed Khan, the MLA from Chamrajpet, is the lone Muslim member in the cabinet.
Khan will be stepping into the assembly after defeating BJP candidate Bhaskar Rao by a margin of 53,953 votes. A five-time MLA from Chamrajpet, Khan is known to be a close aide of Siddaramaiah.
The political history of Zameer Ahmed Khan
Khan has represented the Chamrajpet assembly constituency, a traditional Congress stronghold, since 2005. His first stint as a legislator came on a JD(S) ticket when a by-election was held as senior Congress leader SM Krishna vacated the seat after being named governor.
Third ministerial berth
Khan is no stranger to a state ministerial position. Earlier, he was the minister for Food, Civil Supplies, and Consumer Affairs in the 2018 Congress-JD (S) government. He was also the minister of the Haj and Wakf Board in 2006 during a JD(S)-BJP coalition government.
Jumping ship from the JDS
Khan joined the Congress in 2018 right before the assembly elections, months after he and seven others were expelled from the JD(S) for voting against a party candidate during elections to the Rajya Sabha.
Khan’s induction into the cabinet comes as a welcome gesture to the Muslim community in the state which constitutes over 13 percent of its population but has meager representation in the assembly (9). The total strength of the Karnataka Vidhan Soudha is 224 and the latest Assembly election result takes its Muslim representation to a mere 4 percent.
