Bengaluru: List of 28 members in state cabinet comes down to 8 at oath-taking

Bengaluru : In the first phase, 28 members were expected to be included in the state cabinet, but in the midnight “proceedings” it was reduced to eight. According to sources, twenty people were left out of the tussle between Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar over who should join the cabinet and who should not.

A list was made separately by Siddaramaiah, DK Shivakumar, among them Mallikarjuna Kharge, Surjewala and KC Venugopal had another list ready. But due to lack of joint decisions, it has been learned that the green signal was given for the inclusion of eight people who were in the three lists.

RV Deshpande, HK Patil, TB Jayachandra, Lakshmana Savadi, HC Mahadevappa, UT Khader, Lakshmi Hebbalkar, Krishna Byregowda, Cheluvarayaswamy, Shivalingegowda, Madhu Bangarappa, Basavaraya Reddy, who wanted to be included in the first list, are now disappointed. In addition, it has been learned that some seniors have vented their frustrations in front of their closed ones.

Among all these, it is surprising that the name of BK Hariprasad, who was the leader of the opposition in Vidhan Sabha, was not in the first list. It is said that the names of BK Hariprasad and Salim Ahmed were expected to be included in Parishad. Regarding the formation of the cabinet, the list of 28 members was ready till 11 pm. It is said that it changed after that. In addition to this, it was said that even though there was pressure to include the name of NS Boseraju, a former member of Vidhan Parishad, who is not a member of any House, his name was in the first list, it was said that it was left out as a different message could be sent. It is said that DK Sivakumar was against adding Zameer Ahmed’s name in the first list. But Siddaramaiah insisted on adding his name. Regarding the Muslim MLAs proposed by DK Shivakumar, Siddaramaiah said that he cannot give a chance to those who cannot get vote in any other constituency except their own. Sources said that Siddaramaiah was adamant that Zameer Ahmed, who had campaigned in more than 100 Muslim-dominated constituencies as a star campaigner, the party cannot not leave him. It is said that state in-charge Randeep Surjewala and general secretary KC Venugopal also agreed to this.

Out of the ten candidates who took oath on Saturday, only one representative is from Vokkaliga, Lingayat and Backward Classes. Other than SC-ST quota two right, one left and, one Scheduled Caste are allowed. Minority Muslim and Christian communities have been given one seat each.