Karnataka cabinet expansion on Saturday, 24 legislators to be sworn in as ministers tomorrow
Congress releases list of its cabinet ministers
Bengaluru, May 26: A week after assuming power in Karnataka, the Congress on Friday released the list of 24 legislators who will be sworn-in as ministers on May 26 to fill up all the vacant ministerial positions.
The cabinet expansion will take place on Saturday noon with their swearing-in ceremony, according to Congress leaders.
The Karnataka government can have 34 ministers. While 10 of them including Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his deputy D K Shivakumar were sworn-in on March 20, the rest will be inducted on Saturday.
Senior MLA H K Patil, Krishna Byregowda, N Cheluvarayaswamy, K Venkatesh, Dr H C Mahadevappa, Congress working president Eshwar Khandre and former Congress president Dinesh Gundu Rao are among those who will take the oath on Saturday.
Others who will make it to the Karnataka cabinet are Kyathasandra N Rajanna,Sharanabasappa Darshanapur, Shivanand Patil, Ramappa Balappa Timmapur, S S Mallikarjun, Shivaraj Sangappa Tangadagi, Dr Sharanaprakash Rudrappa Patil, Mankal Vaidya, Laxmi Hebbalkar, Rahim Khan, D Sudhakar, Santosh Lad, N S Boseraju, Suresha B S, former CM S Bangarappa's son Madhu Bangarappa, Dr M C Sudhakar and B Nagendra.
According to Congress sources, Lakshmi Hebbalkar, Madhu Bangarappa, D Sudhakar, Cheluvaraya Swami, Mankul Vaidya and M C Sudhakar are considered close to Shivakumar.
Both Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar have been in the national capital for the last three days and they have held several rounds of discussions.
The decision was finalised after hours of parleys between Siddaramaih and his deputy Shivakumar with top central leaders including AICC general secretaries K C Venugopal and Randeep Surjewala.
Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and former party chief Rahul Gandhi gave their final nod to the list which balances caste and regional equations in the southern state.
Earlier, the two Karnataka leaders also met Sonia Gandhi, for the first time after government formation in the state.
Differences between Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar had emerged over names of probable ministers but these were sorted out during the discussions, the sources said.
Meanwhile, all the leaders left for Bengaluru from New Delhi for the oath-taking ceremony of the new ministers. Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu and his Jharkhand counterpart Hemant Soren also left with Shivakumar and Surjewala for Saturday's event.
The portfolios have not been allotted yet. However, according to minister K H Muniyappa, the portfolios of the ministers will be announced by Saturday evening.
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I-T sleuths raiding Congress functionary’s house to defame me: D K Shivakumar
Kanakapura (Karnataka), Apr 24: Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister D K Shivakumar on Wednesday said the Income Tax sleuths were raiding the houses of Congress block presidents to defame him and to obstruct them from election campaigning.
“The IT department is conducting raids on Congress party workers deliberately in order to prevent them from election campaigning,” he said in a statement.
Seeking to know whether BJP and JD(S) candidates were not distributing money, Shivakumar, who is also the Congress state president, asked why there were no raids on them.
The IT department is ready with a list of people to target and they are going by that, he claimed.
“They are pressurising contractors to attribute the money found from them to D K Shivakumar. They raided the house of DK Suresh’s driver and manhandled his wife and children during the raid,” the DCM alleged.
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The IT department could not find any cash in any of the raids on our party workers, Shivakumar said, adding this was a deliberate ploy to obstruct the Congress election campaign.
“They (I-T sleuths) are specifically targeting the Bengaluru Rural district fearing election loss,” he added.
Meanwhile, Congress workers staged a protest against I-T raids on Congress MP D K Suresh’s close associate here on Wednesday.
The party workers raised slogans against the BJP for the I-T raids on the house of Gangadhar, a former councilor and an associate of Congress MP D K Suresh.
They accused the BJP government at the Centre of "tying the hands" of the Congress candidate by carrying out an I-T raid on his associates.
“Gangadhar has a lot of land and is wealthy. There are a lot of wealthier people in BJP but no I-T raids are conducted on them. The I-T department is targeting associates of D K Shivakumar and D K Suresh to obstruct their campaigning,” the protesters accused.
IT raids were also carried out at the houses of Gottigere Block Congress President Sridhar, D K Suresh’s personal secretary Sujay, Chandru, Lakshman and Babu, according to sources close to Shivakumar.
