Karnataka Congress Govt to Fill Cabinet Today, Attempts Balancing Act to Avoid Berth Pangs

The much-awaited cabinet expansion of the Congress government in Karnataka will take place on Saturday with 24 ministers to be sworn in. With this, Karnataka gets a full cabinet with no vacant berths. The focus now shifts to portfolio allocation.

The final list has just one woman minister and several senior leaders have failed to make the cut. RV Deshpande, TB Jaya Jayachandra, and BK Hariprasad have been kept out.

Eight ministers, deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar, and chief minister Siddaramaiah had taken oath last Saturday after the Congress bagged the state in the recently held assembly elections.

The party has tried to strike a balance by choosing senior and junior MLAs to the cabinet on the basis of caste and regional representation along with social justice.

With Lingayats backing the Congress strongly in the elections, a total of seven ministerial berths have been given to the community and almost all major sub-sects have got representation. Eshwar Khandre from Banajigas, Lakshmi Hebbalkar and Sivananda Patil from Panchamasali, MB Patil from Kudu Vokkaliga, SS Mallikarjun from Sadar Lingayats, Sharan Prakash Patil from Adi Banajigas, Darshanapura and Vaishnava Reddy from Reddy Lingayats, and HK Patil have got representation.

Vokkaligas, another dominant community that voted for the Congress, has got four berths. Deputy CM Shivakumar and N Cheluvarayaswamy are from the Gangatkar sect of Vokkaligas while Krishna Byregowda from Dasa Vokkaliga sub-sect and Periyapatna MLA Venkatesh of Kunchitiga sub-sect have made it to the cabinet.

The Dalit community has got nine berths, including senior leaders like KH Muniyappa, G Parameshwar, HC Mahadevappa, RB Timmapur, and Priyank Kharge.

Two Muslim leaders, Zameer Ahmed Khan and Rahim Khan, are in the cabinet, while KJ George represents the Christian community.