Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa reshuffled the portfolios of his cabinet on January 22 after dissidence from ministers. The notification issued on Friday reads that the changes shall be applied with immediate effect. The Karnataka cabinet was reshuffled late on Wednesday night, and received Governor Vajubhai Vala’s nod on Thursday morning. Several prominent portfolios have been juggled to make way for the seven newly-inducted ministers.
JC Madhuswamy who was allocated Kannada and Culture department has instead been given Hajj and Waqf portfolio. He also will oversee the Medical Education Department. Kannada and Culture was handed over to Aravind Limbavali in addition to the Forest Department.
Legislator N Nagaraja (MTB) was given charge of the Municipal Administration Department after earlier being allocated the Excise Department. MTB will also overlook the work of Sugarcane Development and Directorate of Sugar under the Industries and Commerce Department.
Madhuswamy skipped an event of the Chief Minister in his home district Tumakuru, apparently upset over being divested of three key departments, while M T B Nagaraj had openly said that did not want the Excise portfolio given to him.
According to the order dated January 22, the Excise Department will now be overseen by K Gopalaiah who was earlier appointed as Minister for Horticulture and Sugarcane Development Department. The Sugar Ministry was earlier headed by Arabail Shivaram Hebbar, who will now only hold the Labour Ministry.
KC Narayana Gowda has been allotted the departments of Youth Empowerment and Sports Department and Planning, Programme Monitoring and Statistics Department. Meanwhile, R. Shankar has been allocated the Horticulture and Sericulture Departments.
The Chief Minister has kept the Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms (DPAR), Cabinet Affairs, Finance, Bangalore Development, Energy, Intelligence from the Home Department, Infrastructure Development Department and all other unallocated portfolios to himself.
Ending a long wait, Yediyurappa had expanded his 17-month-old cabinet on January 13, inducting seven ministers, but the exercise led to resentment with several aspirants expressing reservations over not being included in the ministry. Legislators Umesh Katti, Aravind Lumbavali, Nagaraju (MTB), CP Yogeshwar, R Shankar, S Angara and Murugesh Nirani were inducted into the cabinet.
With PTI inputs