Bengaluru: Former CM Siddaramaiah seems to have had his way, and finally dethroned G Parameshwara from the coveted Home Minister’s post. With this Siddu loyalist M B Patil, the newly inducted Lingayat strongman is all set to be the Home Minister of Karnataka. Even Congress heavyweight DK Shivakumar had to budge down to the plans of Siddaramaiah and part ways with Medical Education department. He has now been given Kannada and Culture Department along with water resource ministry.
Not just this, portfolios were handed to five Congress MLAs who were inducted into the Karnataka Cabinet about a week ago on Friday, December 28, with redistribution of some portfolios held by the Congress.
Who gets what?
MTB Nagaraju is the new Housing Minister, a post previously held by UT Khader in addition to his existing portfolios. CS Shivalli has been given the Department of Municipalities and Local Bodies. Satish Jarkiholi is the new Forest Minister, replacing Independent MLA R Shankar. Tukuram has been named as the new minister for medical education.
RB Thimmapur has received the portfolios of Port and Inland Transport (held by HD Revanna) and Sugar (KJ George). Rahim Khan is the new Sports Minister, while Parameshwara Naik is the Minister of Muzrai and Skill Development (held by RV Deshpande).
Deputy CM G Parameshwara, who had to give up the Home portfolio has been given three ministries. They are Law, Justice and Human Rights and Parliamentary Affairs and Legislation (held by Krishna Byre Gowda) and Departments of IT and BT, Science and Technology (previously held by KJ George). He will continue to be the Bengaluru Development Minister.
It may be recalled that the news of rift between Siddaramaiah and Dr Parameshwar has been hitting headlines over the last few days. It was said that Siddaramaiah wanted Dr Parameshwar to give away portfolio of Home so that one of the six newly inducted MLAs could be kept happy. However, this plan did not go down well with Dr Parameshwar. Even DK Shivakumar was irked by the plans of Siddaramaiah as the latter wanted DKShi to hand over MEdical Education portfolio. However, AICC President Rahul Gandhi had intervened and said that the Karnataka Congress will have to follow the instructions of Siddaramaiah as far as allocation of the portfolios was concerned.
