THE Congress Government in Karnataka on Saturday expanded its Cabinet by inducting 24 Ministers, including just one woman, Lakshmi Hebbalkar, and veteran legislator H K Patil, thus filling all 34 ministerial positions a week after the party assumed power in the State. Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot administered the oath of office and secrecy to the 24 Ministers. These Ministers include 23 MLAs and the Congress high command’s surprise candidate N S Boseraju, who is neither an MLA nor an MLC. “Boseraju, a former MLA and MLC, is the All India Congress Committee secretary. Hailing from Raichur, he is a committed Congress worker. His name was cleared by the Congress high command yesterday,” a Congress leader told PTI. “Though therearethreewomenMLAs, Roopakala Shashidhar, Kaneez Fatima and Laxmi Hebbalkar, the party chose togivetheCabinetberthonly to Hebbalkar,” a Congress activist, who was also a ticket aspirant, complained.

 

There areveryrareinstances of all sanctioned ministerial positions being filled in Karnataka,aCongressofficebearer said. The Karnataka Government can have 34 Ministers. Ten of them, including Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his Deputy DKShivakumar, were sworn in on May 20. Amid tight security, the swearing intookplace atRaj Bhawan. MLAs HKPatil, Krishna Byregowda, N Cheluvarayaswamy, K Venkatesh, H C Mahadevappa, Congress working president Eshwar Khandre and former state Congress president Dinesh GunduRao areamongthose who took oath. Others in the list are: Kyathasandra N Rajanna, S h a r anaba sappa Darshanapur, Shivanand Patil, Ramappa Balappa Timmapur, S S Mallikarjun, Shivaraj Sangappa Tangadagi, Sharanaprakash Rudrappa Patil, Mankal Vaidya, Laxmi Hebbalkar, Rahim Khan, D Sudhakar, Santosh Lad, NSBoseraju, Suresha B S, Madhu Bangarappa, M C Sudhakar and B Nagendra. Meanwhile,thediscontent among many senior legislatorswhoweredenieda ministerial position erupted in the form of protests outside. Dejectedsupportersofthe legislators who could not makeittotheCabinetraised slogans outside the Governor's residence where the ministers took oath. Apart from Bengaluru, protests were held in Sira in Tumakuru, Mysuru, Haveri, Kodagu and various other placesaswell,withmanydisgruntledlegislatorsandtheir supportersvoicingtheirdiscontent.