Karnataka cabinet expansion: 24 lawmakers to be sworn in as ministers today | Indian News – India Times

BENGALURU: A week after assuming power in Karnataka, Congress on Friday published a list of 24 lawmakers who will be sworn in as ministers on May 27, according to party leaders.
The Karnataka government may have 34 ministers. Ten of them, including Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his deputy DK Shivakumar, were sworn in on May 20.
MLAs HK Patil, Krishna Byregowda, N Cheluvarayaswamy, K Venkatesh, HC Mahadevappa, Acting Speaker of Congress Eshwar Khandre and former Speaker of State Congress Dinesh Gundu Rao are among those to be sworn in at noon on Saturday.
Others on the list are Kyathasandra N Rajanna, Sharanabasappa Darshanapur, Shivanand Patil, Ramappa Balappa Timmapur, SS MallikarjunShivaraj Sangappa Tangadagi, Sharanaprakash Rudrappa Patil, Mankal Vaidya, Laxmi Hebbalkar, Rahim Khan, D Sudhakar, Santosh Lad, NS Boseraju, Suresha BS, Madhu Bangarappa, MC Sudhakar and B Nagendra.
Lakshmi Hebbalkar, Madhu Bangarappa, D Sudhakar, Cheluvaraya Swami, Mankul Vaidya and MC Sudhakar are close to Shivakumar, according to Congress sources.
The Congress list includes names of six Lingayats and four Vokkaligas.
Three MLAs are from Scheduled Castes, two from Scheduled Tribes and five from other backward communities: Kuruba, Raju, Maratha, Ediga and Mogaveera.
In Dinesh Gundu Rao, Brahmins also have representation in the cabinet.
Seven ministers are each from Old Mysuru and Kalyana Karnataka regions, six from Kittur Karnataka region and two from Central Karnataka.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has struck a balance by providing caste and region representation, as well as giving due respect to senior and junior MLAs, according to an official statement.
He also said that the cabinet will have eight lingayats. Within them, representation has been given to different sub-sects of the community.
There will be five Vokkaligas including Shivakumar, according to the statement.
The cabinet will have nine ministers from registered castes, he said.
The wallets have not yet been assigned. State Minister KH Muniyappa said the portfolios will be announced on Saturday night.
Both Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar have been in Delhi for the past three days and have had several rounds of discussions with the party leadership.
The names of the 24 MLAs were decided after hours of frantic deliberations between Siddaramaiah, Shivakumar and top central leaders including AICC secretaries general KC Venugopal and Randeep Surjewala.
Congress Speaker Mallikarjun Kharge and former party chief Rahul Gandhi gave the final nod to the list.
Earlier, the two Karnataka leaders also met Sonia Gandhi for the first time after the formation of the government in the state.
Differences arose between Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar over the names of potential ministers, but were resolved during discussions, the sources said.
Meanwhile, all the leaders left for Bangalore from Delhi for the swearing-in ceremony of the new ministers.
Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu and his Jharkhand counterpart Hemant Soren also set off with Shivakumar and Surjewala for Saturday’s event.