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Karnataka portfolio tussle ends as Siddaramaiah keeps finance, Shivakumar in charge of Bengaluru development
Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah will handle finance while his deputy DK Shivakumar got irrigation and Bengaluru city development.
Karnataka chief minister Siddaramaiah will handle finance while his deputy DK Shivakumar got irrigation and Bengaluru city development as portfolios were assigned to ministers after the cabinet’s expansion to its full complement of 34 two days ago, the state government announced on Monday.
The announcement came after intense lobbying over the weekend, with legislators vying for plum portfolios. On Saturday evening the Congress put together a list for portfolio allocation, but the party had to defer a formal announcement to paper over the brewing dissent. Eventually, however, the list that emerged on Monday was almost identical to the one disseminated two days earlier.
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“There was lobbying, but as AICC general secretary in charge Randeep Surjewala said on Friday, the final call is that of the chief minister. The fact that no changes were made means Siddaramaiah had his way,” a senior Congress leader said, on the condition of anonymity.
Apart from finance, Siddaramaiah has kept cabinet affairs, the departments of personnel and administrative reforms, intelligence, information, IT, infrastructure development, and other unallocated portfolios. Shivakumar got charge of the development of Bengaluru, a crucial ministry with the city incessantly blighted by issues such as poor roads, failing urban infrastructure, and the inability to deal with the after-effects of rain. He will also have the influential civic body Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), and other civic agencies in Bengaluru city.
Senior minister G Parameshwara, who had thrown his hat in the ring for the chief minister’s post when Siddaramaaiah and Shivakumar were jockeying for the top post in Delhi, has been given the home department, a portfolio he has handled before.
“Parameshwara, who was in the running for the deputy chief minister’s post too, but lost out because the party chose to make Shivakumar the sole deputy, was also eyeing the revenue portfolio. Siddaramaiah was able to pacify him,” a senior official said. The new revenue minister will be Krishna Byregowda, a Vokkaliga leader.
Senior leader MB Patil, one of eight ministers to take oath with Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar on May 16, was assigned the large and medium industries ministry, while KJ George will be in charge of the energy ministry. HK Patil, another senior Lingayat leader, has been allocated law and parliamentary affairs, legislation and tourism, while KH Muniyappa is the new food and civil supplies and consumer affairs minister.
“Muniyappa lobbied for the social welfare portfolio but that has gone to HC Mahadevappa,” a senior Congress leader said.
Former state Congress president Dinesh Gundurao will be the new health minister while close Siddaramaiah associate Zameer Ahmed Khan, one of the two Muslim faces in the 34-member cabinet, has been given housing, Wakf and minority welfare.
Eight-time MLA Ramalinga Reddy has been given transport along with the Muzrai department. He had served as home minister in the Siddaramaiah government and was upset over the transport portfolio in the draft list, conveying to the chief minister that he preferred to remain an MLA instead. On Sunday, however, Shivakumar and Bengaluru rural MP DK Suresh held a two-hour meeting at his residence in Bengaluru, and gave him the Muzrai department along with transport.
“Whatever portfolio is given, we will have to work. Ministry, portfolio, nothing is permanent. Ministers as well as portfolios keep changing. I had worked as transport minister in the past and got several awards for the department,” Reddy said reacting to the allocation.
The only woman minister in Siddaramaiah’s cabinet Lakshmi Hebbalkar was given the women and child development portfolio. AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge’s son Priyank Kharge got the rural development and panchayati raj portfolio. Kharge was said to have been eyeing the IT and BT portfolio, which the chief minister ultimately kept with himself.
