Eight new cabinet ministers to be sworn-in the Karnataka government

The Congress has released its first list of cabinet ministers for the newly formed Karnataka government. The All India Congress Committee has cleared eight legislators who will be ministers of cabinet rank. They are G Parameshwara, KH Muniyappa, KJ George, MB Patil, Satish Jarkiholi, Priyank Kharge, Ramalinga Reddy and BZ Zameer Ahmed Khan. All the ministers will be sworn-in by Karnataka Governor Thawar Chand Gehlot at the massive ceremony organised at Kanteerava stadium at 12.30 pm on Saturday, May 20.

The new team will have a cabinet meeting after the oath taking ceremony, where they are expected to approve the rolling out of ‘five guarantees’ promised in the manifesto. The Congress in its manifesto, had promised 200 units of free electricity to every household, 10 kgs of rice every month to every member of BPL household, Rs 2,000 per month to every woman head of household, Rs 3,000 per month to unemployed graduates and Rs 1,500 to unemployed diploma holders for two years (18-25 years) and free travel for women across Karnataka in state buses.

The ceremony organised for the swearing-in of the new government which will see Siddaramaiah as the new Chief Minister and DK Shivakumar as the Deputy Chief Minister, is expected to attract more than one lakh people. This will be Siddaramaiah’s second term as Chief Minister, while it will be DK Shivakumar’s first stint as Deputy Chief Minister. The event will be attended by Rahul and Priyanka Gandhi.

Heightened security arrangements have been made around the stadium, which will see a bevy of national leaders from various parties attending the event. Around 20 national leaders, including Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin, Bihar CM Nitish Kumar and Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren, are expected to attend. Other prominent national leaders like Uddhav Thackeray, Sharad Pawar, Mehbooba Mufti, Sitaram Yechury, D Raja and Farooq Abdullah are also expected to attend. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav have said they will not be attending the event.