Senior leaders facing charges kept out; supporters protest

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Saturday inducted 28 members into his Ministry, keeping out senior MLAs and former Ministers facing charges of illegal mining and land denotification, yielding to pressure from civil society groups.

This triggered protests by supporters of ministerial aspirants D.K. Shivakumar and A. Manju in Bangalore and Hassan, and A.B. Maalakaraddy in Yadgir, where his supporters ransacked the Congress office and set fire to furniture. Senior leader Kagodu Thimmappa’s followers also protested in Shimoga.

Of the 28 Ministers sworn in by Governor H.R. Bhardwaj, 20 are of Cabinet rank, and eight are Ministers of State. With the Administrative Reforms Commission recommending that the size of the Ministry should not exceed 34 (one-third the strength of the Assembly), there are five vacancies.

The Cabinet Ministers are R.V. Deshpande, Prakash Hukkeri, T.B. Jayachandra, R. Ramalinga Reddy, Qamarul Islam, B. Ramanath Rai, H.K. Patil, H.C. Mahadevappa, V. Srinivas Prasad, Shamanur Shivashankarappa, K.J. George, M.H. Ambareesh, Baburao Chinchansur, H.S. Mahadev Prasad, Vinay Kumar Sorake, Satish Jarkiholi, Shivaraj Tangadagi, U.T. Khader, H. Anjaneya and M.B. Patil.

Krishna Byre Gowda, Dinesh Gundu Rao, Abhay Chandra Jain, Sharan Prakash Patil, Kimmane Ratnakar, Umashree, Parameshwar Naik and Santosh Lad.

Four from Bangalore

Bangalore has two Cabinet Ministers and Ministers of State each: Mr. Ramalinga Reddy, Mr. George, Mr. Dinesh Gundu Rao and Mr. Krishna Byre Gowda. No MLC has been made Minister.

The Congress won 121 of the 223 of the 225 Assembly seats for which elections were held. The election in Periyapatna was countermanded and one seat is reserved for an Anglo-Indian nominee. The BJP and the JD(S) won 40 seats each.