More than three years after assuming office, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah carried out a major reshuffle of his cabinet on Sunday in a bid to refurbish the administration with several ministers being shown the door.
Thirteen legislators took oath as ministers- Nine as cabinet ministers and four as ministers of state.
Kagodu Thimmappa, Ramesh Kumar, Basavaraj Rayareddy, Ramesh Jarkhiholi, SS Mallikarjun, HY Meti, Tanveer Sait, MR Sitaram, Santhosh Lad took oath as cabinet ministers.
Pramod Madhavraj, Rudrappa Lamani, Priyank Kharge and Eshwar Khandra took oath as Ministers of State.
The outgoing ministers were Qamarul Islam, Shamanur Shivashankarappa, V.Srinivasa Prasad, M.H.Ambareesh, Vinay Kumar Sorake, Satish Laxmanrao Jarkhiholi, Baburao Chinchanasoor, Shivraj Sangappa Tangadagi, S.R. Patil, Manohar H. Tahasildhar, K.Abhayachandra Jain, Dinesh Gundu Rao, Kimmane Ratnakar, P.T. Parameshwar Naik.
The much talked about cabinet reshuffle took place after a meeting with Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Vice-President Rahul Gandhi in New Delhi on Saturday.
The Chief Minister attempted to strike a balance, inducting young legislator and senior Congress leaders, while keeping in mind caste and regional factors as well.
While 14 ministers were shown the door for “poor-performance and controversies”, sources claim that the ministers with money have been retained.
However, trouble started brewing in parts of Karnataka even before chief minister Siddaramaiah could announce the final cabinet list.
Mandya, Koppal, Kalaburagi, Mysore, Chikballapura and Bengaluru districts have been witnessing protests.
This is the first major cabinet rejig in the Karnataka government since 2013. Last October, Siddaramaiah expanded his cabinet by filling four more positions. However, this reshuffle could perhaps decide the Congress’ prospects ahead of the 2018 Assembly Elections.