M B Patil finally has his way; enters HDK cabinet

It's official. Former minister and Lingayat strongman, M B Patil has finally made it into the H D Kumaraswamy cabinet.

The Congress, which gave its consent for the cabinet expansion and reshuffle on Friday, had only finalised names of seven MLAs out of eight for the ministerial positions.

With three MLAs under the Lingayat quota lobbying for the ministerial berth, the party had kept its decision pending.

On Saturday however, the office of Congress legislature party leader Siddaramaiah announced the final list, which included Patil's name.

BC Patil (Hirekerur) and BK Sangameshwara (Bhadravathi) were the two other Lingayat MLAs who had lobbied hard for a berth.

The Babaleshwar MLA was among the first to raise a banner of revolt against the Congress, for not being inducted into the cabinet during the first round of expansion.

Patil who had served as the Water Resources Minister in the previous Congress government had also led the controversial Lingayat movement.

The other MLAs who will be sworn in as ministers at 5.20 pm on Saturday are -- Satish Jarkiholi (brother of Ramesh Jarkiholi and MLA from Yamakanamaradi), C S Shivalli (Kundgol MLA), R B Thimmapur (MLC from Bagalkot district), M T B Nagaraj (Hoskote), E Tukaram (Sandur), P T Parameshwar Naik (Hoovina Hadagali) and Raheem Khan (Bidar North).