Siddaramaiah has his say in portfolio allocation too

Former chief minister Siddaramaiah has had his say, with his close aide M B Patil getting the coveted Home portfolio. Deputy Chief Minister G Parameshwara had to part with the portfolio despite his resistance.

All India Congress Committee (AICC) general secretary in-charge of Karnataka K C Venugopal sent the list with portfolios of the eight newly inducted ministers to Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy for approval on Friday.

It has been sent to Governor Vajubhai Vala for his assent.

It has been a week since the names of the eight Congress legislators, inducted into the Cabinet, were announced, but portfolio allocation was delayed due to hectic
lobbying.

The tussle

The tussle for the Home portfolio even led to reported war of words between Siddaramaiah and Parameshwara.

Parameshwara was very reluctant to give up the portflio and did so only after the intervention of Congress chief Rahul Gandhi.

However, he will continue to hold the Bengaluru Development portfolio with IT-BT and Law and Parliamentary Affairs added to his kitty.

New faces

Several ministers, who held multiple portfolios, have been divested of one to accommodate the new faces.

The Medical Education porfolio, which was under D K Shivakumar, has been given to E Tukaram.

Shivakumar will retain Water Resources and also take charge of Kannada and Culture from Jayamala.

Satish Jarakiholi, brother of Ramesh who was dropped from the Cabinet, has been given Forest. Ramesh’s Municipal Administration portfolio has been allotted to C S Shivalli.

MTB Nagaraj has been given Housing, held by U T Khader. Khader will continue to hold Urban Development portfolio.

Muzai and Skill Development held by Rajashekar Patil and R V Desphande, respectively, have been allotted to P T Parameshwar
Naik.