Karnataka CM appoints ministers in-charge of districts, keeps Bengaluru for self
PremiumThis comes even as senior minister V Somanna, currently holding the housing portfolio, had openly expressed his desire to be made in charge of Bengaluru
Effecting a complete change to the previous BS Yediyurappa-led BJP government, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai on Monday allocated the districts that ministers in his cabinet will be in-charge of, keeping the key Bengaluru urban district with himself.
This comes even as senior minister V Somanna, currently holding the housing portfolio, had openly expressed his desire to be made in charge of Bengaluru.
According to reports, some city legislators and ministers had also expressed their reservation internally about giving the post to revenue minister R Ashoka, considered close to Bommai.
With the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike elections due to take place, it was earlier widely expected that the responsibility of Bengaluru development would be allocated to a senior minister from the city.
Further, in a strategic move, he has also not assigned any minister their home districts under which their Assembly constituency comes.
While at least two senior ministers – revenue minister R Ashoka and law and parliamentary affairs minister J C Madhuswamy have not been assigned any districts; three ministers- BC Patil, K Gopalaiah and Shankar B Patil Munenakoppa have been allocated two districts each.
Interestingly, B Sriramulu who represents Molakalmooru Assembly segment in Chitradurga has got his home district of Ballari; while C N Ashwath Narayana continues as Ramanagra district in-charge, where he seems to be in a turf war with Congress' "D K brothers" (KPCC chief D K Shivakumar and Bangalore Rural MP D K Suresh), Ministers and districts allocated to them are- Govind Karjol (Belagavi), K S Eshwarappa (Chikkamagaluru), V Somanna (Chamarajnagara), Umesh Katti (Vijayapura), S Angara (Udupi), Araga Jnanendra (Tumakuru), C C Patil (Bagalkote), Anand Singh (Koppal), Kota Shrinivas Poojari (Uttara Kannada), Prabhu Chauhan (Yadgir), Murugesh Nirani (Kalaburagi).
Also, Shivaram Hebbar (Haveri), S T Somashekar (Mysuru), B C Patil (Chitradurga and Gadag), B A Basavaraj (Davangere), K Sudhakar (Bengaluru Rural), K Gopalaiah (Hassan and Mandya), Shashikala Jolle (Vijayanagara), MTB Nagaraj (Chikkaballapura), K C Narayana Gowda (Shivamogga), B C Nagesh (Kodagu), Sunil Kumar (Dakshina Kannada), Halappa Achar (Dharwad), Shankar B Patil Munenakoppa (Raichur and Bidar), and Munirathna (Kolar). According to party sources, despite demand from several Ministers to be made in-charge of their home districts, the Chief Minister has decided against it while making appointments.
This is the first time after the Bommai government came to power that each district has got an in-charge minister. Earlier, ministers were assigned districts only for Covid-19 management and for flag-hoisting at headquarters on Independence Day.
With inputs from agencies.
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