Bangalore: A week after forming the government in Karnataka, 24 MLAs took oath as ministers today. Chief Minister Siddaramaiah is expanding his cabinet. The Karnataka government can have 34 ministers. Ten ministers, including Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, were sworn in on May 20, while 24 other MLAs are being inducted into the cabinet today.
Senior MLAs H K Patil, Krishna Byregowda, N Cheluvarayaswamy, K Venkatesh, Dr H C Mahadevappa, state Congress working president Ishwar Khandre and former state Congress president Dinesh Gundu Rao are among the mlAs who are taking oath as ministers.
KN Rajanna, Sharanbasappa Darshanpur, Shivanand Patil, Ramappa Balappa Thimmapur, S S Mallikarjun, Shivraj Sangappa Tangdagi, Dr Sharan Prakash Rudrappa Patil, Mankal Vaidya, Laxmi Hebbalkar, Rahim Khan, D Sudhakar, Santosh Lad, N S Boseraju, Suresh BS, former Chief Minister S Bangarappa’s son Madhu Bangarappa, Dr M C Sudhakar and B Nagendra were also sworn in as ministers.
According to Congress sources, Lakshmi Hebbalkar, Madhu Bangarappa, D Sudhakar, Cheluvarayaswamy, Mankul Vaidya and M C Sudhakar are considered close to Shivakumar.
Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar, who were in the national capital for the last three days, held several rounds of discussions with the party leadership on cabinet expansion.
The names of the ministers were finalised after Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar’s hour-long talks with top central leaders, including All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary KC Venugopal and Randeep Surjewala.