Karnataka CM Bommai's new cabinet: 29 ministers take oath, no deputy CM

BENGALURU: Karnataka chief minister Basavaraj Bommai inducted 29 ministers into his cabinet on Wednesday, retaining most of the faces from his predecessor BS Yediyurappa's ministry.
The keenly-awaited cabinet expansion comes a week after Bommai took charge as the chief minister of the state, following the resignation of Yediyurappa.
Bommai had earlier said he will not have any deputy chief ministers in his cabinet as per the directions of the high command. Yediyurappa's younger son and state BJP vice president B Y Vijayendra was not included in the cabinet.
State governor Thaawarchand Gehlot administered oath of office to the new ministers at the Raj Bhavan in Bengaluru.

Six new faces
Bommai's team is a mixture of senior and fresh faces.
Out of the 29 leaders who took oath on Wednesday, as many as 23 were ministers in the previous cabinet while six are new.
Among those in the Yediyurappa cabinet who made it to Bommai's ministry are Govind Karjol (Mudhol), KS Eshwarappa (Shivamogga), R Ashoka (Padmanabhanagar), CN Ashwath Narayan (Malleshwaram), B Sriramulu (Molkalmuru), Umesh Katti (Hukkeri), ST Somashekar (Yeshwanthpur), K Sudhakar (Chikkaballapura), and BC Patil (Hirekeruru).
Also, JC Madhuswamy (Chikkanayakanahalli), Prabhu Chauhan (Aurad), V Somanna (Govindraj Nagar), S Angara (Sullia), Anand Singh (Vijayanagara), CC Patil (Nargund), MTB Nagaraj (MLC) and Kota Srinivas Poojary (MLC).
The six fresh faces are V Sunil Kumar (Karkala), Araga Jnanendra (Thirthahalli), Munirathna (RR Nagar), Halappa Achar (Yelburga), Shankar Patil Munenkopp (Navalgunda) and BC Nagesh (Tiptur).
Bommai has maintained the caste equation by inducting most ministers from the two main communities in the state, while also giving a sizeable representation to the backward communities.
In the new cabinet, 8 ministers are Lingayats, 7 Vokkaligas, 7 OBCs, 3 SCs, 2 Brahmins, 1 ST and 1 Reddy. Former minister Shashikala Jolle is the lone woman representative in the new cabinet.
Keeping up the "promise", Bommai has inducted 10 legislators who had joined BJP after quitting Congress-JD(S) coalition in 2019, and helped the saffron party to come to power.
Eleven of them were ministers in the Yediyurappa government, out of them two Shrimant Patil and R Shankar have not made it the Bommai cabinet, while Munirathna has been newly inducted.
(With inputs from agencies)