In a move that is likely to ruffle more feathers in the Congress, Siddaramaiah has made former state president G Parameshwar home minister.
Following the cabinet expansion that has been delayed for vrious reasons for over a year, Siddaramaiah also made some changes in the alloction of portfolios to ministers. The most important was to make Parameshwara the home minister.
The notification however, came late on Friday night. The expansion has raised the number of cabinet ministers to the maximum permissible figure of 34. There are now 24 ministers of cabinet rank and nine ministers of state with independent charge.
The move is seen as a slight to KJ George, who held the portfolio until now, as the home minister’s post is seen as the second-most important post in the state, after that of the chief minister.
George has now been enstrusted with the development of Bengaluru city, a portfolio which would give him authority over the multiple agencies such as the BDA, BMTF, BBMP and others, which oversee the instrastructure development of the city. Siddaramaiah had announced a separate ministry for Bengaluru ahead of the BBMP elections held in August.
A Manju and Vinay Kulkarni have been made ministers of state for animal husbandry and sericulture, and mines and geology respectively. Manohar Tahsildar has been made minister for excise.