Cabinet Expansion in Karnataka Leads To Discontentment Among Congress MLAs
Indi assebly seat MLA Yashavantarayagouda V Patil tendered his resignation letter today, meanwhile Sagar MLA Belur Gopalkrishna said he will resign on Tuesday
BENGALURU: Confusion marred the cabinet expansion in Karnataka on Monday leading to omission/addition of names a couple of times from the initial list of MLAs to be made Ministers by ruling-Congress party and the result of made officials concerned to reschedule the swearing-in ceremony by an hour at Lok Bhavan in Bengaluru city from previous 4 pm to 5 pm.
Eventually, the list of MLAs to be Ministers was cleared/readied by the party leaders made way for the swearing-in ceremony wherein as many as 19 MLAs took oath as Ministers in the D.K. Shivakumar led the Government. The cabinet expansion took place after Shivakumar completed two-months as Chief Minister.
Earlier, a list of Ministers to be inducted was changed where Karwar MLA Mankal Vaidya, representing Bhatkal Assembly seat in Uttara Kannada, was left out to include S.S. Mallikarjun. Sources in the Congress party attributed the replacement of Mankal Vaidya by S.S. Mallikarjun was a “typo error.”
MLC N.S. Boseraju was approved to be a Minister by the Congress central leaders but was conspicuous by his absence. In a list approved by the central leaders, MLC Gayathri Shantegowda was approved but later her name was left out in the list announced later.
S.S. Mallikarjun replaced Mankal Vaidya at the last minute to become a Minister. Mankal Vaidya arrived at the residence of Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar but in vain. He declined to comment on his name omitted from the list at the last minute. S.S. Mallikarjun told reporters “I have no idea over the changes in the list.” He stated the Chief Minister invited him for the swearing-in ceremony and directed me to be present at 4 pm.
MLC Gayathri Shantegowda was left out from the swearing-in ceremony hours before the ceremony and the reasons for her missing the ministerial berth was not known immediately. Initially, sources said 20 Ministers were to be sworn-in at the Monday’s ceremony and 19 of them took oath.
Thee new faces in Shivakumar’s ministry include-Rizwan Arshad, representing Shivaji Nagar Assembly seat in Bengaluru, Vijayanand Kashappanavar, representing Hungund seat in Bagalkot, Shivalinge Gowda, representing Arasikere seat in Hassan, P.M. Narendra Swamy, representing Malavalli seat in Mandya, Dr Aja Singh, representing Jewargi seat in Kalaburagi, Raghu Murthy, representing Challakere seat in Chitradurga, Puttarange Shetty, representing Chamarajanagar seat in Chamarajanagar, Basavarajaraya Reddy, representing Yelburga seat in Koppal, H.C. Balakrishna, representing Magadi seat in Bengaluru South district, Laxman Savadi, representing Athani seat in Belagavi and Basavanthappa, representing Mayakonda seat in Davangere.
While, N. Cheluvarayaswamy, representing Nagamangala seat in Mandya, Madhu Bangarappa, representing Soraba seat in Shivamogga, S.S. Mallikarjun representing Davangere seat in Davangere, Ridrappa Lamani, representing Haveri seat in Haveri, Santosh Lad representing Kalaghatagi seat in Dharwad and Shivaraj Tangadagai representing Kanakagiri seat in Koppal made a comeback to the ministry. All of them served under previous Chief Minister Siddaramaiah who was the Chief Minister from May, 2023 to May, 2026.
Some disgruntled MLAs Yeshavantharaya Gouda Patil representing Indi seat in Vijayapura resigned as an MLA expressing displeasure over denial of ministerial berth and he tendered resignation to Deputy Speaker Rudrappa Lamani. Patil said he was assured a beeth but later denied.
Sagar MLA Gopala Krishna Beluru announced his resignation on Tuesday while MLAs B.K. Sangamesh, Tanveer Sait prominently expressed displeasure over being left out from inducting into the Ministry.
