Karnataka Cabinet expansion on Friday

The Karnataka Cabinet will be expanded on Friday with the induction of three lawmakers of the ruling Congress, an official said on Thursday.

"The Cabinet will be expanded on Friday evening to fill three vacancies caused due to various reasons," an official at the Chief Minister's Office told IANS here.

Governor Vajubhai R. Vala will administer the oath of office to the new ministers at the Raj Bhavan here at 5 p.m.

According to party sources, Legislative Council lawmakers H.M. Revanna and R.B. Thimmapur and Legislative Assembly lawmaker Gita Prasad are likely to join the 31-member Cabinet, including Chief Minister Siddaramaiah.

"The Chief Minister got the approval of our high command for Cabinet exansion," the sources said.

Revanna and Thimmapur were Ministers in the S.M. Krishna's government in 1999-2004. Gita is the widow of former Cooperative Minister H.S. Mahadeva Prasad, who died on January 3, 2017. She got elected on April 13 from Gundlupet assembly segment in the southern state's old Mysuru region.

The Cabinet expansion is the third in the over four-year-old government after the second on September 5, 2016, and October 28, 2015.

--IANS

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