Chief minister Siddaramaiah's 28-member council of ministers is a mixture of experience and promise.
The 28-member new council of ministers for Karnataka sworn in on Saturday signalled convergence between chief minister S Siddaramaiah and the Congress high command over keeping the “tainted” out of the cabinet in the state, which recently rejected a corrupt BJP government.
The imprimatur of Rahul Gandhi was evident in the composition of the 28-member team, which was a mix of heavyweight seniors and promising juniors. The two-tier ministry, with 20 ministers and eight ministers of state, has seasoned administrators in half a dozen former ministers of the state government and a couple of former union ministers.
Keeping his promise to keep ‘tainted’ leaders out of the ministry, Siddaramaiah managed to exclude from his cabinet serious aspirants such as DK Shivakumar, mining baron and Rajya Sabha member Anil Lad, elected from Bellary city, and former minister R Roshan Baig.
The swearing-in of the new cabinet at the Raj Bhavan in the city was a smooth affair, although followers of those left out, notably former minister DK Shivakumar and Tanvir Sait, staged protests.
Most of the MLCs stayed away from the swearing-in ceremony in protest against the non-inclusion of members of the legislative council in the ministry. The Congress leadership had decided that only MLAs would be included in the cabinet, to reward their services in routing the BJP.
Sworn in were former union ministers V Srinivasa Prasad and actor-turned-politician MH Ambarish. Film actress Umashree is the lone woman in the ministry.
Four Congress MLAs from Bangalore made it to the ministry. They are Ramalinga Reddy and KJ George, and ministers of state Krishna Byregowda and Dinesh Gundu Rao.
Others included in the cabinet included former ministers RV Deshpande, TB Jayachandra and HK Patil. Veteran Qamar-ul-Islam from Gulbarga was another entrant, along with Shivaraj S Thangadagi, who won the 2008 elections as an independent and joined the Congress before the May 5 polls. The ministry has five vacancies which would be filled in the second round of cabinet expansion.
Fabulous 4 from Bangalore
Ramalinga Reddy, six-time MLA, ex-minister, known as strongman of Bangalore south.
KJ George, the lone Malayali in the cabinet, five-time MLA.
Krishna Byregowda, Luminary of the youth brigade, close to Rahul Gandhi.
Dinesh Gundu Rao, son of ex-chief minister MR Gundu Rao, one of Congress's young guns.
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