K'taka cabinet expansion: Congress gets lion's share

Karnataka Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy on Wednesday expanded his cabinet by inducting a total of 25 ministers.

Out of the 25 ministers, the Janata Dal (Secular) Party got nine cabinet berths, while the Congress was allotted 14 berths.

The remaining two berths went to an independent and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP).

Among the JD(S) ministers who took the oath were - H.D. Revanna, Bandeppa Kashempur, D.C. Thammanna, M.C. Managuli, S.R. Srinivas, Venkata Rao Nadagowda, C.S. Puttaraju and Sa Ra Mahesh.

JD(S) leader G.T. Devegowda who defeated former Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah from the Chamundeshwari seat in the recently-held state assembly elections was also awarded a cabinet berth.

From the Congress, the ministers who were sworn-in were - R.V. Deshpande, K.J. George, Krishna Byregowda, Shivashankara Reddy, Ramesh Laxmanrao Jarakiholi, Priyank Kharge, U.T. Khader, Zameer Ahmad, Shivanand Patil, Venkataramanappa, Rajshekar Baswaraj Patil and Puttaranga Shetty.

Senior Congress leader D.K. Shivakumar, who played a key role in ensuring that his party members were not "poached" by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) was also allocated a cabinet berth.

Member of Legislative Council for Congress Dr. Jayamala Ramachandra took oath as a minister and is the only woman in the Kumaraswamy cabinet.

An independent candidate, Shankar and N. Mahesh of the BSP were allotted cabinet berths respectively.

Karnataka Governor Vajubhai R. Vala administered the oath to the newly inducted ministers.

The Congress-JD(S) alliance government on June 1 announced the allotment of portfolios among them.

As per the allocation, the Congress got the charge of 22 ministries, including home, irrigation, health, agriculture and women and child welfare ministries.

While 12 ministries, including finance and excise, public works department, education, tourism and transport ministries was allocated to the JD(S).

The two parties also agreed upon forming coalition coordination and monitoring committee that will look over the functioning of the alliance in the state.

The committee will be headed by Siddaramaiah, while JD(S)'s Danish Ali will work as its convenor.