Dr. H.C. Mahadevappa and K. Venkatesh from Mysuru district take oath

Bengaluru: After much deliberations, 24 more Legislators were inducted into Chief Minister Siddharamaiah’s Cabinet this morning, exactly a week after the Congress formed the Government on May 20.

The new Ministers were inducted at a ceremony held at Glass House in Raj Bhavan here. Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot administered the Oath of Office and Secrecy to the new Ministers in the presence of CM Siddharamaiah, Dy.CM D.K. Shivakumar, other Cabinet Ministers and a host of other dignitaries. However, the portfolios of all the Ministers is yet to be announced. The CM is said to have gained an upper hand over his Deputy as the list of new inductees had several leaders identified as his loyalists.

Startlingly, at least three senior Congress leaders — R.V. Deshpande, T.B. Jayachandra, both MLAs and B.K. Hariprasad, an MLC —  who were hoping to get into the Cabinet on seniority, missed the bus.

The 24 new Ministers, who were sworn-in are: H.K. Patil (Gadag), Krishna Byre Gowda (Byatarayanapura-Bengaluru City), N. Cheluvarayaswamy (Nagamangala-Mandya), K. Venkatesh (Periyapatna-Mysuru), Dr. H.C. Mahadevappa (T. Narasipur-Mysuru), Eshwar Khandre (Bhalki-Bidar), K.N. Rajanna (Madhugiri-Tumakuru), Dinesh Gundurao (Gandhinagar-Bengaluru City),  Sharanabasappa Darshanapur (Shahapur-Yadgir), Shivanand Patil (Basavana Bagewadi-Vijayapura), R.B. Thimmapur (Mudhol-Bagalkot), S.S. Mallikarjun (Davanagere North-Davanagere), Shivaraj Tangadagi (Kanakagiri-Koppal), Sharan Prakash Patil (Sedam-Kalaburagi), Mankal Vaidya (Bhatkal-Uttara Kannada), Lakshmi Hebbalkar (Belagavi Rural-Belagavi), Rahim Khan (Bidar), D. Sudhakar (Hiriyur-Chitradurga), Santosh Lad (Kalghatgi-Dharwad), N.S. Boseraju, Byrathi Suresh (Hebbal-Bengaluru City), Madhu Bangarappa (Soraba-Shivamogga), M.C. Sudhakar (Chintamani-Chikkaballapur) and B.Nagendra (Ballari Rural-Ballari).

All those inducted took oath in that order starting with H.K. Patil and ending with B. Nagendra.

Except N.S. Boseraju, all the other 23 are MLAs. Boseraju, who hails from Raichur district, is not a member of either the Legislative Assembly or Legislative Council. However, he has to get elected from one of the two Houses within the stipulated period of 6 months.

Mix of Senior and Junior Legislators

The Cabinet is a mix of Senior and Junior Legislators. The Congress finalised the list after several rounds of talks running between CM Siddharamaiah and his Deputy D.K. Shivakumar, with top party leaders and Congress General Secretaries  K.C. Venugopal and Randeep Singh Surjewala. Later, AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge and former Congress President Rahul Gandhi approved the list late on Friday evening.

Bengaluru city has the most number of representation in Siddu Cabinet with 6 members namely  K.J. George, Byrathi Suresh, Ramalinga Reddy, Zameer Ahmed Khan, Krishna Byregowda and Dinesh Gundu Rao making it into the Cabinet.

Lone woman Minister

Lakshmi Hebbalkar from Belagavi is the lone woman member of the 34-member Cabinet.

Mysuru district, apart from Chief Minister Siddharamaiah who represents Varuna, has got two Cabinet berths — Dr. H.C. Mahadevappa and K. Venkatesh. However, Mysuru city, which has two Congress MLAs — Tanveer Sait of NR and K. Harishgowda of Chamaraja — failed to get a berth.

While Tanveer Sait is a six-time successive MLA, Harishgowda has been elected for the first time. Sait’s hopes of getting into the Cabinet were dashed as his name was missing in the list approved by the AICC.

The Cabinet now has 9 SC/ST, 8 Lingayat, 5 Vokkaliga, 2 Kuruba, 2 Muslims, 1 Jain, 1 Christian, 1 Brahmin and 5  members from other and  OBC communities. 

Siddu Cabinet full

With the induction of 24 new members, the Siddharamaiah Cabinet is now in full strength as only 34 members can be accommodated in Karnataka Cabinet (15 percent of the 224-member Legislative Assembly).

Siddharamaiah had taken oath as the Chief Minister at a glittering ceremony held at Sree Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru on May 20, along with KPCC President and Kanakapura MLA D.K. Shivakumar as Deputy Chief Minister and eight other Cabinet Ministers — M.B. Patil, K.H. Muniyappa, Priyank Kharge, Dr. G. Parameshwara, Satish Jarkiholi, Ramalinga Reddy, K.J. George and Zameer Ahmed Khan.

No representation for eight districts

Though the Cabinet now has full strength, there is no representation for 8 districts — Kodagu, Hassan, Chikkamagalur, Kolar, Vijayanagar,  Dakshina Kannada, Udupi and Chamarajanagar while Boseraju, a surprise choice, is considered as a representative of Raichur district.

It is learnt that Senior Congress MLA from Chamarajanagar C. Puttarangashetty, also a former Minister, will be appointed as Deputy Speaker.

Late on Friday night, CM Siddu dispatched a list of 24 Cabinet inductees to the Governor’s Office, after returning from New Delhi.

Savadi and Shettar fail to make into Cabinet

However, the buzz around the Cabinet expansion was the leaving out of Athani MLA Lakshman Savadi and former Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar, who were believed to be certain inductees.

Both Savadi and Shettar, who were strong Lingayat leaders of BJP in Kittur-Karnataka region for decades, had quit the party over denial of tickets, to join the Congress with much fanfare in the presence of top leaders like Rahul Gandhi, Randeep Surjewala, Siddharamaiah and D.K. Shivakumar, just a couple of weeks before the May 10 Assembly polls.

Both Savadi and Shettar got the Congress ticket and contested the Assembly poll. While Savadi succeeded in winning from Athani in Belagavi district by a huge margin, Shettar lost from Hubballi-Dharwad Central.

Savadi, apart from winning himself, had also helped Congress candidates in his neighbouring Constituencies in becoming victorious.

 However, it is to be seen whether Shettar will be fielded as Congress candidate to take on Union Minister Pralhad Joshi from Dharwad Constituency in next year’s Lok Sabha polls.