On Saturday at 11.45 a.m. at the Raj Bhavan, the newly elected Karnataka Congress government will take its oath in a complete state cabinet made up of 24 ministers. After much deliberation on the selection of ministers, the extension of the cabinet was finally completed.Following his return from Delhi on Friday night, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah sent the list of new ministers to the Governors office. He claimed that when selecting the ministers, Congress adhered to the standards of “providing equal representation to all castes and regions through considering the values of social justice”.The new ministersThe list comprises names of Dinesh Gundu Rao, Krishna Byre Gowda, Eshwar Khandre, Raheem Khan, Santosh Lad, K N Rajanna, Peeriyapattana Venkatesh, H C Mahadevappa, Byrathi Suresh, C Puttarangashetty, Shivaraj Tangadi, R B Timmpur and B Nagendra, all of whom are regarded close to chief minister Siddaramaiah. The extended cabinet also includes ministers who are close to the deputy chief minister DK Shivakumar, including Lakshmi Hebbalkar, Madhu Bangarappa, D Sudhakar, Cheluvaraya Swami, Mankul Vaidya, and M C Sudhakar.Eight Lingayats make up the list of new ministers, including the only woman minister, Lakshmi Hebbalkar. There are also seven members of the Scheduled Caste (SC) community, five Vokkaliga members, two Muslims, three members of the Scheduled Tribe (ST) community, six members of the Other Backward Classes (OBC) community, including one Maratha, and also one Brahmin, one Christian, and one Jain.The list received final approval from Rahul Gandhi and Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge. Siddaramaiah and D K Shivakumar had earlier met Sonia Gandhi for the first time following the creation of the states new administration. Both of them had disagreements over potential ministers selection, but these were resolved through negotiations under the supervision of the High Command. As the new ministers were being sworn in, all the leaders departed from Delhi for Karnatakas capital. Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu, the chief minister of Himachal Pradesh, and Hemant Soren, the chief minister of Jharkhand, also departed for the occasion on Saturday.
