Bengaluru: A week after taking over as the chief minister of Karnataka, Basavaraj Bommai on Wednesday inducted 29 ministers into his cabinet, many of whom were also ministers in the B.S. Yediyurappa government.
The new ministers were administered oath of office and secrecy by governor Thaawarchand Gehlot at the Raj Bhavan here.
Among those who have been sworn in again are Govind Karjol (Mudhol), K.S. Eshwarappa (Shivamogga), R. Ashoka (Padmanabhanagar), C.N. Ashwath Narayan (Malleshwaram), B. Sriramulu (Molkalmuru), Umesh Katti (Hukkeri), S.T. Somashekar (Yeshwanthpur), K. Sudhakar (Chikkaballapura), and B.C. Patil (Hirekeruru), J.C. Madhuswamy (Chikkanayakanahalli), Prabhu Chauhan (Aurad), V. Somanna (Govindraj Nagar), S. Angara (Sullia), Anand Singh (Vijayanagara), C.C. Patil (Nargund), M.T.B. Nagaraj (MLC), and Kota Srinivas Poojary (MLC).
The fresh faces are V. Sunil Kumar (Karkala), Araga Jnanendra (Thirthahalli), Munirathna (RR Nagar), Halappa Achar (Yelburga), Shankar Patil Munenkopp (Navalgunda) and B C Nagesh (Tiptur).
Yediyurappa’s younger son and state BJP vice president B.Y. Vijayendra was among the prominent figures who missed out on the cabinet rank.
Bommai was elected as the new leader of the BJP legislature party last week, after Yediyurappa resigned. He took oath as the chief minister on July 28.
Among the ministers in the new cabinet are eight Lingayats, seven Vokkaligas, seven OBCs, three Dalits, two Brahmins, one person from a Scheduled Tribe and one Reddy. There is only one woman in the cabinet.
Once again, the importance of those who had defected from the JD(S) and Congress was highlighted. This defection ensured that the coalition government headed by H.D. Kumaraswamy fell and the BJP came to power. This time, ten of the legislators who had defected were sworn in, down from eleven in the Yediyurappa government. Shrimant Patil and R. Shankar have not made it to the Bommai cabinet, Munirathna has been newly inducted.
Earlier on Wednesday, Bommai said there will be no deputy chief ministers in his cabinet as per the high command’s directions.