Bengaluru: Eight Congress Legislators were sworn-in as Ministers on Saturday, with the JD(S)-Congress Coalition Government headed by H.D. Kumaraswamy finally carrying out the long overdue Cabinet expansion.
Eight Ministers were inducted while two were dropped from the Congress share of 22 Cabinet berths, thus completing the Ministry expansion for the party. The JD(S), however, chose to keep two berths from its share vacant.
Governor Vajubhai R. Vala (fifth from right), Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy (centre) and Deputy Chief Minister Dr. G. Parameshwara (fourth from right) with newly-inducted Ministers (from left) R.B. Timmapur, MTB Nagaraj, C.S. Shivalli, M.B. Patil, E. Tukaram, P.T. Parameshwar Naik, Rahim Khan and Satish Jarkiholi at Raj Bhavan yesterday.
Those inducted were Satish Jarkiholi, from Scheduled Tribe (ST) community, in place of his brother Ramesh Jarkiholi, M.T.B. Nagaraj, a Kuruba, in place of R. Shankar. Another Kuruba Legislator C.S. Shivalli, Lingayat strongman M.B. Patil, Valmiki community’s E. Tukaram and P.T. Parameshwar Naik (Lambani), R.B. Timmapur, an MLC belonging to SC (left) community and Rahim Khan, a minority community leader, were the other new Ministers. The new Ministers were administered the Oath of Office and Secrecy at the Glass House at Raj Bhavan by Governor Vajubhai R. Vala last evening.
Interestingly, seven out of the eight Ministers inducted were from North Karnataka, with M.T.B. Nagaraj being the only one inducted from Southern Karnataka.
With Saturday’s expansion, North Karnataka will be represented by 13 Ministers in the Cabinet, as against 16 from South Karnataka and three from Coastal Karnataka.
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