Cabinet reshuffle in Karnataka; 14 ministers sacked, 13 inducted

19 June, Bengaluru

In a major revamp, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah Sunday sacked 14 ministers and inducted 13 members into his Council of Ministry in the long awaited exercise.

With the Congress High Command giving the go-ahead, nine ministers of cabinet rank and four ministers of state were inducted at the swearing in ceremony at Raj Bhavan with Governor Vajubhai Vala administering the oath of office and secrecy.

Ahead of the swearing in, Siddaramaiah recommended sacking of 14 ministers which the Governor accepted.

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.

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

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

The ministers who were dropped are Qamarul Islam, Shamanoor Shivashankarappa, V Srinivasa Prasad, M H Ambareesh, Vinay Kumar Sorake, Satish Jarkiholi, Baburao Chinchansoor, Shivaraj Sangappa Tangadagi, S R Patil, Manohar Tahasildhar, K Abayachandra Jain, Dinesh Gundu Rao, Kimmane Ratnakar, P T Parameshwar Naik.

Party sources said ministers who were seen as non-performers or were hit by some controversy or the other were shown the door. The sources said the exercise was to inject more dynamic members into the ministry.

The Chief Minister has embarked upon the exercise more than three years after assuming office on May 13, 2013.