Bengaluru: Karnataka Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar on Monday expanded his cabinet, with 19 Congress MLAs taking oath as ministers at a ceremony held at Lok Bhavan, despite the party initially finalising 20 names.
Governor Thawarchand Gehlot administered the oath of office at 5 pm. Although Gayatri Shantegowda was among those cleared for induction, she did not participate in the swearing-in ceremony after she was reportedly not called by the Chief Minister’s Office.
According to party sources, her induction was put on hold as she is yet to be sworn in as a member of the Legislative Council, prompting a last-minute change in the cabinet list.
Dr Ajay Singh, son of former Chief Minister Dharam Singh, was the first to take oath. The other ministers inducted were H.C. Balakrishna, K.S. Basavanthappa, Basavaraj Rayareddy, N. Chaluvarayaswamy, Lakshman Savadi, Madhu Bangarappa, S.S. Mallikarjuna, B. Nagendra, P.M. Narendraswamy, C. Puttarangashetty, T. Raghumurthy, Rizwan Arshad, Rudrappa Lamani, Santosh Lad, Shivalingegowda, Shivaraj Tangadagi, Vijayanand Kashappanavar and Zameer Ahmed Khan.
