Bengaluru: The Congress government in Karnataka completed the process of cabinet expansion, finalising the names for 24 cabinet berths on Friday.
However, former Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar and Deputy Chief Minister Laxman Savadi, who jumped ship to join Congress from the BJP and helped to tilt Lingayat vote bank, have missed cabinet berths, sources said.
As per sources, senior Congress leader from Gadag district H.K. Patil from Namdhari Reddy community, Krishna Byre Gowda representing Hebbal seat in Bengalurum, N. Cheluvarayaswamy from Mandya district, K. Venkatesh from Mysuru district, and M.C. Sudhakar from Chikkaballapura district, all hailing from Vokkaliga community, have been accommodated.
Senior Congress leader Eshwar Khandre from Bidar, Sharanabasappa Darshanapur from Yadgir, Shivanand Patil from Vijayapura, S.S. Mallikarjun from Davanagere, and Laxmi Hebbalkar from Belagavi, all from Lingayat community, have been named as ministers.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’ right-hand man Dr. H.C. Mahadevappa from Mysuru district, R. B. Thimmapur from Bagalkot district, and Shivaraj Tangadagi from Koppal district, all from Scheduled Caste community, will be ministers.
K.N. Rajanna from Tumakuru district and a staunch follower of Siddaramaiah and B. Nagendra from Bellary district, both hailing from Scheduled Tribe, are also included.
6-time MLA and former state chief Dinesh Gundu Rao representing Gandhinagar seat in Bengaluru has been given a cabinet berth too. He belongs to the Brahmin community.
Mankal Vaidya, belonging to Mogaveera community, from Uttara Kannada district has been preferred over veteran Congress leader R.V. Deshapande from the region.
Rahim Khan,a senior Congressman from Bidar representing Muslim community is part of the cabinet. D. Sudhakar representing the Jain community from Chitradurga has been given cabinet post over three-time MLA Raghu Murthy belonging to ST community.
Santhosh Lad from Dharwad, belonging to Maratha community; N.S. Bosaraju from Raichur, belonging to Raju BC community, Bhyrathi Suresh, a close confidante of Siddaramaiah from Kuruba community will also be ministers.
The party has accommodated Madhu Bangarappa from Shivamogga in the view of making the roots of the party strong in the home turf of former CM B.S. Yediyurappa. Bangarappa belongs to the Ediga OBC community.
Going by the list, CM Siddaramaiah had gained upper hand over his deputy D.K. Shivakumar. Six Lingayats, four Vokkaligas, five OBCs, three SCs, two STs, one each from Brahmin, Muslim, Jain and Reddy community have got the cabinet berths in the second list.
Sources said that the list had been sent to the Raj Bhavan and the swearing in ceremony would be held on Saturday morning.
(IANS)
