Siddaramaiah appoints 34 MLAs as chiefs to boards & corporations

Bengaluru: The ruling Congress on Friday appointed 34 party MLAs as heads of various state-run boards and corporations. Shantinagar MLA N A Haris has been appointed as chairman of the powerful Bangalore Development Authority (BDA)  

Arsikere MLA K M Shivalinge Gowda, a former JD(S) legislator who jumped the ship to Congress ahead of the 2023 Assembly elections, was made chairman of Karnataka Housing Board (KHB).

The other interesting appointment is of S R Srinivas (Gubbi MLA), who also jumped ship from JD(S) to Congress ahead of the 2018 Assembly polls, has been appointed as chairman of Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC).

According to the notification, all these postings will come with cabinet ranking for a tenure of two years or until further orders. Appointments to board and corporations had run into rough weather after several ministers including Dr G Parameshwara, Satish Jarkiholi and K N Rajanna had openly raised strong objections over workers from their districts being appointed without consulting them.  This prompted the chief minister to clear the appointment of MLAs while keeping in abeyance the party workers’ appointments, the party source said. 

There has been some disgruntlement and growing impatience within a section of the Congress party legislators, who missed out of the ministerial berths. Some of them raised their voice in open on the inordinate delay in appointments.

Here’s the list of some of the prominent faces who were made head of the boards/corporations:

Hampanagouda Badarli (Sindhanur MLA): Karnataka State Industrial Infrastructure Development Corporation 

Appaji C S Nadagouda (Muddebihal): Karnataka Soaps and Detergent Limited

Bharamgouda (Raju) Alagouda Kage (Kagwad): North West Karnataka Transport Corporation

Hullappa Yamanappa Meti (Bagalkot): Bagalkot Development Authority  

Basavaraj Neelappa Shivannanvar (Bydagi): Karnataka State Forest Development Corporation.

B G Govindappa (Hosadurga): Food and Civil Supplies Corporation 

G S Patil (Ron): Karnataka Minerals Development Corporation

Shivanand Mahantesh Koujalgi (Bailahogal): Karnataka State Finance Corporation

C Putttaranga Shetty (Chamarajanagar): Mysore Sales International Limited

G T Patil (Bilagi): Hatti Gold Mines

Raja Venktappa Naik (Shorapur): Karnataka State Warehousing Corporation

B K Sangameshwar (Bhadravathi): K’taka Rural Infrastructure Development Corporation (Land Army)

Abbaiah Prasad (Hubballi-Dharwad East): Karnataka Slum Development Corporation 

B K Gopal Krishna Belur (Sagar): Karnataka Forest Industries Corporation

S N Narayanswamy (Banagarpet): Karnataka Urban Infrastructure Development and Finance Corporation

T Raghumurthy (Challakere): Karnataka Small Scale Industries and Finance Corporation

A B Ramesha Bandisiddegowda (Srirangapatna): Chamundeshwari Electricity Supply Corporation

S N Subba Reddy (Bagepalli): Karnataka Seed Corporation

Vinay Kulkarni (Dharwad): Karnataka Urban Water Supply and Sewerage Board

Anil Chikkamadu (HD Kote): Jungle Lodges

Kaneez Fatima (Gulbarga Uttar): Karnataka Silk Industries Development Corporation

Vijayanand Kashappanavar (Hungund): Karnataka Sports Authority

T D Raje Gowda (Sringeri): Karnataka Renewable Energy Development Corporation

Roopkala M (KGF): Karnataka Handicrafts Industries Development Corporation

Satish Krishna Sail (Karwar): Karnataka Marketing Consultants and Agencies Ltd 

G M Ganesh (Kampli): Karnataka Handloom Development Corporation

Basavanagouda Turvihal (Maski): Karnataka State Khadi and Cottage Industries Board