Nagesh, Shankar get portfolios

As advised by Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy, Governor Vajubhai R Vala on Monday allocated Small Scale Industries portfolio to H Nagesh and Municipalities to R Shankar, 10 days after the two ministers were inducted into the Cabinet.

While Nagesh is a debutante minister, Shankar was the forest minister in Kumarswamy’s Cabinet before he was dropped in December last year.

Kumaraswamy expanded the Cabinet by inducting Shankar and Nagesh with a view to safeguard the coalition government against attempts by the Opposition BJP to poach MLAs.

Shankar won the 2018 Assembly polls from the Ranebennur constituency from the Karnataka Pragnavanthara Janata Party (KPJP), which he merged with the Congress recently. Nagesh is an Independent MLA representing Mulbagal.