Karnataka Cabinet: 10 Ministers to Sworn-in Today

After days of lobbying for ministerial berths, Karnataka ChiefMinister B S Yediyurappa will induct 10 ministers in his cabinet on Thursday. Allthe 10 are from JD (S) and Congress rebels who helped the BJP topple the H DKumaraswamy-led coalition government in July 2019, paving the way for the BJPto come to power. The MLAs subsequently contested for the BJP and won in the December2019 by-elections.

Yediyurappa, on Wednesday, said that after a discussion, the party leadership in New Delhi has said only 10 ministers should be inducted for now. I have been asked to travel to the national capital at a later point to meet the leaders to decide on the rest. He said that the Karnataka cabinet will have 28 ministers, including the chief minister and the cabinet has sanctioned strength of 34, six berths remain vacant.

The MLAs likely to be sworn in today include Ramesh Jarkiholi(Gokak), S T Somashekar (Yeshwantpur), Byrathi Basavaraj (KR Puram), K Sudhakar(Chikkaballapur), Shivaram Hebbar (Yellapur), Shrimanth Patil (Kagwad), B CPatil (Hirekerur), Anand Singh (Vijayanagar), K Gopalaiah (Mahalakshmi Layout),and K C Narayan Gowda (KR Pet).

Mahesh Kumathalli, former Congress MLA who won the by-polls from Athani, and Umesh Katti, a BJP leader who won from Hukkeri MLA, have not been chosen for the cabinet expansion.