From Our Special Correspondent
Daijiworld Media Network
Bangalore, August 8: The impasse over the constitution of the D V S Sadananda Gowda ministry has been finally resolved with the induction of 21 ministers at an urgently convened swearing-in ceremony held at Raj Bhavan on Monday evening.
The Jagadish Shettar camp, backed by state BJP president K S Eshwarappa, which was pipped in
the secret ballot for electing the chief minister to succeed B S Yeddyurappa forced to resign after a 38-month-rule over the indictment by the outgoing Lokayukta Justice Santosh Hegde had to be content with nine berths sans the deputy chief minister’s post.
The 21 new ministerial berths were shared in the ratio of 12:9, with as many as 12 ministers from the group owing allegiance to ousted chief minister Yeddyurappa, which had propped up the candidature Sadananda Gowda against Shettar, and the rival camp getting 9 berths.
The 21 newly inducted ministers in the order of their being sworn in are: Jagadish Shettar, R Ashok, V S Acharya, C M Udasi, Govind Karjol, S Suresh Kumar, Shobha Karandlaje, Vishweshwar Hegde Kageri, S A Ravindranath, Basavaraja Bommai, Umesh V Katti, Murugesh R Nirani, S A Ramadas, Laxman Savdi, C C Patil, Revunaik Belamagi, B N Bache Gowda, J Krishna Palemar, V Somanna, A Narayanaswamy and M P Renukacharya.
Significantly, the 11-member group of recently ``qualified” BJP MLAs led by Balachandra Jarkiholi and Anand Asnotikar or none of the candidates from among the MLAs owing allegiance to Bellary Reddy Brothers led by Janardhana Redy, Karunakar Reddy and their associate B Sriramulu have been inducted. All the MLAs belonging to the two groups were conspicuous by their absence at the swearing-in ceremony held at Raj Bhavan.
However, former chief minister Yeddyurappa, who was instrumental in getting Sadananda Gowda installed in the chief ministerial gaddi, was present at the function and could be seen cheering his supporters.
With the induction of the 21 ministers on Monday, which was a made possible following the mediation of BJP high command’s emissary and state in-charge Dharmendra Pradhan after hectic round of parleys between the groups led by Shettar-Eshwarappa, which also has the support of national general secretary Ananth Kumar, the Reddy Brothers and the Jarkiholi-led group, there are still 12 vacancies which are expected to be filled in due course as the size of the ministry in Karnataka cannot exceed 34, being 15 per cent of the total strength of the State legislature.
The Chief Minister, who addressed the media soon after the meeting of his cabinet following the swearing in ceremony, said the next round of expansion to fill up the vacancies will be held in consultation with the national leaders after taking into account all party leaders.
``The allocation of portfolios will be more or less on the lines of the responsibilities held by all the ministers in the Yeddyurappa regime with minor changes,” he said asserting that his team has now been strengthened with the first phase of the expansion.
``My government has got mammoth strength after the cabinet expansion,” the chief minister said promising to carry out the developmental programmes initiated by his predecessor and declared that his government was keen on ensuring that Karnataka emerged as the number one state in the country.
Asked about the rejection of the demand for the deputy chief minister’s post to Shettar and who will be the number two in the cabinet, the chief minister quipped: ``All the 21 ministerial colleagues hold the number two rank.”
Sadananda Gowda said he will be leaving for Delhi to meet the BJP Central High Command and also hold consultations with the Centre on the Metro rail project.
In the 22-member cabinet including the chief minister, as many as 10 belong to the Lingayat community while the Vokkaliga community to which Sadananda Gowda belongs will have five with Brahmins and Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes accounting for four each.
Incidentally, the undivided coastal Dakshina Kannada district will be having a lion’s share of four including the Chief Minister, V S Asharya, Krishna Palemar and Shobha Karandlaje, even though she is MLA from Yeshwanthpur in Bangalore.