Karnataka CM reshuffles ministry, Kharge’s son in 13 new members

Bengaluru, June 19: Ina major rejig, Kar nataka chief minister Siddaramaiah on Sunday dropped 14 ministers and inducted 13 members into his Council of Ministers in a bid to give a face-lift to his three-year old government.

With the reshuffle, the ministry has a strength of 33, one less than the upper constitutional limit.

In the long awaited revamp, nine cabinet rank ministers and four ministers of state were sworn in, a day after the Congress High Command gave the nod to Siddaramaiah who is under pressure to rejuvenate the administration with Assembly polls two years away.

The reshuffle expectedly gave rise to rumblings of discontent with axed ministers openly voicing unhappiness and their supporters turning violent and several ministerial aspirant MLAs threatening to quit their Assembly membership.

Ahead of the swearing in, 14 ministers were shown the door on grounds of non-performance or being controversial with the chief minister recommending their sacking to Governor Vajubhai Vala who accepted it with immediate effect.

Tanveer Sait, Kagodu Thimmappa, Ramesh Kumar, Basavaraj Raya Reddy, H Y Meti, S S Mallikarjun, M R Seetharam, Santosh Lad and Ramesh Jarkiholi were inducted as cabinet rank ministers by the Gover nor at a ceremony at Raj Bhavan.

Priyank Kharge, Rudrappa Lamani, Eshwar Khandre and Pramod Madhwaraj were swor n in as Ministers of State.

Thimmappa and Ramesh Kumar are for mer Assembly Speakers, while Kharge is the son of Congress leader in the Lok Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge. PTI