Modi keeps number of ministers from Karnataka at 3

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday inducted two new ministers from Karnataka, kept one and dropped two other members of the previous government, maintaining the representation of the southern state at three.

While D.V. Sadananada Gowda from Bangalore North and Pralhad Joshi from Dharwad took oath as cabinet ministers, Suresh Angadi from Belgaum was sworn in as Minister of State by President Ram Nath Kovind at Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi.

Dharwad and Belgaum are in the state's northwest region of the erstwhile Bombay Province in the Deccan plateau.

However, Ministers in the NDA-1 government -- Anant Kumar Hegde from Uttar Kannda and Ramesh Jigjinagi from Bijapur (SC) -- were dropped.

Gowda, 66, continues in the government for the second consecutive term. He belongs to the politically-dominant Vokkaliga community. Joshi, 56, is a Brahmin, and Angadi, 64, is a Lingayat, a powerful community across the state.

It's fourth term in Parliament for Joshi and Angadi, since 2004.

Hegde, 51, another four-time MP, was made a minister in November 2017; and Jigajinagi, 66, in July 2016, replacing Minister of State G.M. Siddeshwar from Davanagere.

In NDA-1, the southern state had three ministers, including N.H. Ananth Kumar, who died in November 2018 after a brief illness.

Kumar was Minister for chemicals and fertilisers and parliamentary affairs in the previous government.

--IANS

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