Krishnappa to be inducted into state Cabinet today

Vijayanagar MLA M Krishnappa will be inducted into the state Cabinet on Monday, filling up a vacancy reserved in the council of ministers by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah for the Vokkaliga community.

Governor Vajubhai Vala will administer the oath of office and secrecy at the Glass House in Raj Bhavan at 4.30 pm on Monday. Krishnappa, a one-time MLC and two-time MLA, is likely to get the housing portfolio, which is at present with Siddaramaiah.

The swearing-in ceremony will coincide with Ganesha Chaturthi, as requested by Krishnappa. There are two vacancies in the council of ministers and Siddaramaiah is learnt to have got clearance from the party high command to induct Krishnappa.

During a Cabinet reshuffle in June, Siddaramaiah had dropped two Vokkaliga ministers, M H Ambareesh and Kimanne Ratnakar, but did not induct anyone from the community as there were several contenders, including Krishnappa, K Sudhakar (Chikkaballapur), C P Yogeshwara (Channapatna), S T Somashekar (Yeshwantpur) and N H Shivashankar Reddy (Gauribidanur) among others.

Krishnappa is learnt to have convinced the party high command that he would be the right choice. He has assets worth Rs 147 crore, as per the declaration before the Election Commission in 2013.

His son Priya Krishna, also an MLA, is one of the richest elected representatives with assets worth Rs 910 crore. A science graduate, Krishnappa started his career at a private firm and made it big in real estate business. He is known for development of private layouts in and around Bengaluru and is popularly known as ‘Layout’ Krishnappa.

Official sources said Minister of State for Mines and Geology Vinay Kulkarni and Minister of State for Animal Husbandry A Manju will be elevated to the Cabinet rank. This would be the sixth Cabinet expansion or reshuffle to be taken up by Siddaramaiah since he took over the reins in May 2013.

Rahul’s nod
On Saturday, Siddaramaiah met Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, along with KPCC chief G Parameshwara and working president Dinesh Gundu Rao, to get clearance for appointments to the posts of chairpersons to various boards and corporations. While Rahul put the appointments on hold, he gave the go-ahead to induct Krishnappa into the Cabinet.