The long-awaited expansion of the Karnataka Cabinet is scheduled to take place on Monday after the Congress leadership finalised the list of ministers. The names received the approval of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge following consultations with senior party leaders, including Rahul Gandhi.
According to sources, the final list of 20 ministerial candidates has been handed over to Chief Minister DK Shivakumar. As part of the constitutional process, the Chief Minister will submit the list to Governor Thaawar Chand Gehlot before the new ministers are sworn in.
The proposed ministers are:
PM Narendraswamy
Shivaraj Tangadagi
Rudrappa Lamani
KS Basavanthappa
B Nagendra
T Raghumoorthy
BZ Zameer Ahmed Khan
Rizwan Arshad
Santosh Lad
Bangarappa
Putturangashetty
Mankala Vaidya
Ajay Singh
N Chaluvaraya Swamy
KM Shivalinge Gowda
HC Balakrishna
Gayathri Shanthegowda
Basvaraj Rayareddi
Vijayanand Kashappanavar
Laxman Savadi
The swearing-in ceremony is expected to take place later in the day at around 4 pm. The Cabinet expansion had initially been planned for July 31 but was postponed after the Congress high command held further discussions in New Delhi.
Party leaders are understood to have taken caste, regional and community representation into account while finalising the ministerial lineup, aiming to strike a balance across different sections of the state.
The expansion has been under discussion since Shivakumar took oath as Chief Minister on June 3. Karnataka can have a maximum of 34 ministers, but the council currently has only 14 members, including the Chief Minister, leaving 20 vacancies to be filled.
Apart from Kharge, Rahul Gandhi and Shivakumar, former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Congress general secretary KC Venugopal, AICC Karnataka in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala and Karnataka Congress president BK Hariprasad were also involved in the consultations leading up to the Cabinet expansion.
