Ten new ministers were inducted in the BJP-led Karnataka government on Thursday as a part of its cabinet expansion which was due after the recent bye-election in the state.
Governor Vajubhai Vala administered the oath to these 10 ministers at the Raj Bhavan.
Constituency-wise ministers inducted in the government were Shivaram Hebbar from Yellapura, Shrimanth Patil from Kagwad, BC Patil from Hirekerur, Ramesh Jarkiholi from Gokak, Narayana Gowda from KR Pete, K Gopalaiah from Mahalakshmi Layout, ST Somashekar from Yeshwantpur, Byrathi Basavaraj from KR Puram, K. Sudhakar from Chikkaballapura and Anand Singh from Vijayanagara.
It is to be noted that all the 10 ministers who took the ministerial berths are former MLAs of the JD(S) and Congress. These MLAs were among those 17 MLAs who led to the downfall of the JD(S)-Congress coalition government led by HD Kumaraswamy.
They joined the BJP in November 2019 and went to win the by-polls held in December.
These ministers were welcomed in by the Governor by presenting a bouquet after completing the swearing-in ceremony.
Meanwhile, some of the disgruntled leaders skipped the oath-taking ceremony.
Reacting on the induction of these 10 ministers in the cabinet, Karnataka Congress took Twitter and said, “By leaving out turncoat Kumtahalli, Yediyurappa has cheated the promise made to the electorate. This should have started giving goosebumps to Munirtna, Shankar and others.”
“It proves BJP uses people to come to power and then dumps them. They will be in shock now,” it added.
By leaving out turncoat Kumtahalli @BSYBJP has cheated the promise made to electorate
This should have started giving goosebumps to Munirtna, Shankar & others
It proves @BJP4Karnataka uses people to come to power & then dumps them.These dumped commodities should be in shock now
— Karnataka Congress (@INCKarnataka) February 6, 2020
Karnataka election in 2018, had witnessed a very dramatic government formation after Yediyurappa’s government failed to prove the majority in the Assembly after which the Congress-JD(S) formed the government with HD Kumaraswamy as its Chief Minister.
Later on, in a by-election in the state for 15 Assembly seats, the BJP won 12, Congress two and one by an independent. JD (S) failed to manage victory on even a single seat in the bypolls.