Bangalore, May 20: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah late Sunday allocated portfolios to his new 28-member ministry, keeping key posts such as finance, energy, industries, IT and Bangalore city with himself.
According to a Raj Bhavan communique, Governor H.R. Bhardwaj allocated the various portfolios on the advice of the chief minister to 20 cabinet ministers and eight ministers of state.
Besides the key portfolios, the chief minister will also be in-charge of five other departments for which ministers are to be appointed.
Besides the key portfolios, Siddaramaiah will look after mines and geology, personnel, intelligence wing, urban development, and science and technology.
The home portfolio has been allocated to K.J. George, revenue to Srinivasa Prasad; public works, ports and inland transport to H.C. Mahadevappa; transport to Ramalinga Reddy; law and parliamentary affairs to T.B. Jayachandra; rural development and panchayat raj to H.K. Patil; higher education and tourism to R.V. Deshpande.
forest, ecology and environment portfolio has been given to B. Ramanath Rai; public enterprises and urban/local bodies to Qamar Ul Islam; agriculture marketing and horticulture to Shamanoor Shivashankarappa; housing to Ambareesh; small-scale industries and muzrai (endowments) to P.B. Hukkeri; major and medium irrigation to M.B. Patil; excise to Satish Laxmanrao Jarkiholi; health and family welfare to U.T. Khader; and textiles to Baburao Chinchanasoor.
Among the ministers of state with independent charge, food and civil supplies goes to Dinesh Gundu Rao, agriculture to Krishna Byre Gowda, youth services and fisheries to K. Abhayachandra, infrastructure development to Santosh S. Lad, medical education to Sharanaparakash Rudrappa Patil, education to Kimmane Ratnakar; women and child welfare to Umashree, and labour to Parameshwara Naik.
The ministers were sworn-in Saturday by the governor at Raj Bhavan in the city centre, five days after Siddaramaiah assumed office May 13.
The Congress returned to power after nine years by winning a comfortable 121 seats in the 225-member state legislative assembly, including one nominated member.
By-election to one assembly segment (Periyapatna) in Mysore district is due May 28.
The Bharatiya Janata Party and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) secured 40 seats each, while newly formed regional outfits such as Karnataka Janata Party and BSR bagged six and four seats respectively, and Independents took the remaining 12 seats.
