Karnataka chief minister DK Shivakumar on Wednesday allocated portfolios to his council of ministers, finalising his team after days of suspense after the recent cabinet expansion.
Shivakumar, who was sworn in as the chief minister along with 13 ministers on June 3, inducted 19 more ministers on August 3.
Wednesday’s announcement came a day after the Congress central leadership held a meeting in Delhi chaired by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge to finalise the portfolio allocations for the newly inducted ministers in the state government.
The sanctioned strength of Karnataka’s council of ministers is 34, including the CM. After the expansion, the cabinet now has one vacant berth.
According to the order issued by governor Thaawarchand Gehlot’s office, Shivakumar will retain finance, cabinet affairs, personnel and administrative reforms, intelligence, information, law, justice and human rights, parliamentary affairs and legislation, and agriculture marketing. He will also hold control over the commissionerate of Town and Country Planning and all urban local bodies falling under the Bengaluru Development Authority and Bengaluru Metropolitan Region Development Authority areas.
B.Z. Zameer Ahmed Khan has been given housing, while Ramalinga Reddy will handle forest, ecology and environment. Lakshman Savadi has been assigned co-operation, excluding agricultural marketing.
{{/usCountry}}B.Z. Zameer Ahmed Khan has been given housing, while Ramalinga Reddy will handle forest, ecology and environment. Lakshman Savadi has been assigned co-operation, excluding agricultural marketing.
{{/usCountry}}Rudrappa Manappa Lamani will take charge of sugar and textiles.
K.H. Muniyappa, who was earlier named the food and civil supplies minister and was looking for a change, will handle the social welfare department. Muniyappa, who belongs to the Dalit Left community, had been insisting on the social welfare department, a portfolio that has traditionally seen competing claims from the Dalit Left and Dalit Right groups.
Rizwan Arshad has been assigned food and civil supplies and consumer affairs.
Shivaraj Tangadagi has been given backward classes welfare, Kannada and culture.
U.T. Khader will oversee minority welfare, haj and wakf, health and family welfare. T. Raghumurthy has been assigned scheduled tribe welfare, while Ajay Singh will handle minor irrigation and science and technology.
Cheluvarayaswamy will take charge of major and medium irrigation. Madhu Bangarappa has been assigned primary and secondary education, while Basavaraj Raya Reddy will handle higher education.
Shivalinge Gowda has been given excise, which has been transferred out of the finance department. Puttaranga Shetty will oversee animal husbandry and sericulture departments, while Vijayanand Kashappanavar has been assigned small-scale industries and public enterprises.
Santosh Lad will handle labour and employment. KS Basavanthappa has been given muzrai, fisheries, ports and inland water, while S.S. Mallikarjun will oversee the mines, geology and horticulture departments.
Narendra Swamy will handle agriculture, HC Balakrishna municipal administration and B Nagendra, the minister of planning and statistics.