Bengaluru: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday inducted two new ministers from Karnataka, kept one and dropped two other members of the previous government, maintaining the representation of the southern state at three.
While D.V. Sadananada Gowda from Bangalore North and Pralhad Joshi from Dharwad took oath as cabinet ministers, Suresh Angadi from Belagavi was sworn in as Minister of State by President Ram Nath Kovind at Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi.
Dharwad and Belagavi are in the state’s northwest region of the erstwhile Bombay Province in the Deccan plateau.
However, Ministers in the NDA-1 government Anant Kumar Hegde from Uttar Kannada and Ramesh Jigjinagi from Bijapur (SC) were dropped.
Gowda, 66, continues in the government for the second consecutive term. He belongs to the politically-dominant Vokkaliga community. Joshi, 56, is a Brahmin, and Angadi, 64, is a Lingayat, a powerful community across the state.
Gowda held three portfolios during his first 5-year term, first Railways from May-November 2014, Law and Justice from November-July 2016 and Statistics and Programme Implementation since July 2016 during the cabinet reshuffles.
It’s the fourth term in Parliament for Joshi and Angadi, since 2004.
Hegde, 51, another four-time MP, was made a minister in November 2017; and Jigajinagi, 66, in July 2016, replacing Minister of State G.M. Siddeshwar from Davanagere.
In NDA-1, the southern state had three ministers, including N.H. Ananth Kumar, who died in November 2018 after a brief illness.
Kumar was Minister for chemicals and fertilisers and parliamentary affairs in the previous government.
Of the 28 parliamentary constituencies in the state, the BJP won 25 of the 27 it contested and supported an Independent (Sumalatha Ambareesh) to win from Mandya.
In contrast, the ruling coalition allies Congress and Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) faced rout, winning just one each though they contested in all the 28 seats, fielding joint candidates in the ratio of 21:7 respective under a pre-poll seat-sharing arrangement.
A resurgent BJP not only retained 17 seats it had won in the 2014 general elections, but also wrested 8 from the alliance parties.
Polling for the Lok Sabha seats was held in two phases on April 18 and April 23 in 14 seats each and votes were counted on May 23.
