Karnataka to get 24 new ministers today

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, May 26

The Karnataka Cabinet will be expanded tomorrow, with 24 more MLAs to take oath as ministers. KC Venugopal, Congress general secretary (organisation), has confirmed that the swearing-in ceremony will take place at 11.45 am at the Raj Bhavan in Bengaluru on Saturday. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge may attend the ceremony, he said.

Randeep Singh Surjewala, Congress general secretary incharge of Karnataka, said, “CM Siddaramaiah has discussed several names and said the new members would be sworn in tomorrow.”

Both Siddaramaiah and his deputy DK Shivakumar met Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi in Delhi today.

The MLAs who will take oath as ministers are Krishna Byregowda, N Cheluvarayaswamy, K Venkatesh, MC Sudhakara, Eeshwar Khandre, Sharanabasappa Darshanapur, Shivanand Patil, SS Mallikarjun, Sharan Prakash Patil, Laxmi Hebbalkar, HK Patil, HC Mahadevappa, KN Rajanna, Dinesh Gundurao, RB Timmapur, Shivraj Tangadagi, Mankal Vaidya, Rahim Khan, D Sudhakara , Santosh Lad, NS Boseraju, Madhu Bangarappa, B Nagendra and B Suresh.

On May 20, eight MLAs, besides Siddaramaiah and K Shivakumar, were sworn in as ministers, but none of them has been allocated portfolios as yet.

The Karnataka Cabinet can have a maximum strength of 34 members. There will be thus no vacancy left in the council of ministers after tomorrow's expansion.

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