Karnataka cabinet expansion
Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa on Thursday expanded his six-month-old Cabinet with the induction of ten Ministers. The ministers were sworn-in at a simple ceremony at Raj Bhavan with the Governor Vajubhai Vala administering oath of office and secrecy.
The ten are ST Somashekar (Yeshwantpur constituency), Ramesh Jarkiholi (Gokak), Anand Singh (Vijayanagar), K Sudhakar (Chickballapur), Byrathi Basavaraj (KR Puram), A Shivaram Hebbar (Yellapur), BC Patil (Hirekerur), K Gopalaiah (Mahalakshmi Layout), KC Narayana Gowda (KR Pet) and Shrimant Balasaheb Patil (Kagwad).
Vala welcomed the new ministers into Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa's cabinet with a bouquet after completing their swearing-in.
In December 5 by-elections in 15 assembly segments, the BJP won 12, the opposition Congress two and one by an Independent. The JD-S drew blanks.
This was second ministry expansion of the 6-month-old Yediyurappa government.
Joining the BJP after expulsion from the Congress and the JD-S, 13 of them contested by-elections and 10 of them won along with two BJP contestants. The Congress and an Independent won the remaining 3 seats.
By-elections to two of the 17 seats were withheld due to litigation in the Karnataka High Court over their results in the May 2018 Assembly elections.
In the first expansion on August 21, 17 legislators were made Ministers, with three of them as Deputy Chief Ministers. In the 34-member Ministry, including the Chief Minister, three berths are vacant.
"The two legislators who lost the by-elections will not be accommodated, as the apex court ruling on their petitions forbids them from becoming Ministers," Yediyurappa said.
On R. Shankar, who won as Independent in the 2018 elections from Ranebennur in the Haveri district but joined the Congress on becoming Minister in the last government, Yediyurappa said he would be made Minister after his election to the Karnataka Legislative Council as he didn't contest by-elections.
Yediyurappa recently met BJP chief J.P. Nadda and Union Home Minister Amit Shah and got the names approved.
Meanwhile, Deputy Chief Minister Laxman Savadi, who is not a member of the House, will file nomination on Wednesday for getting elected to the legislative council to continue in the office.
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