BANGALORE: There is no woman among the 20 Ministers who were sworn in on Friday when Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy effected the first round of Ministry expansion.

In the Dharam Singh-led Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) coalition, only Bhagirathi Marulasiddanagowda (Congress) made it to the Cabinet in the second round of expansion. As Minister for Women and Child Welfare, she remained a pale shadow of her dynamic predecessor in the S.M. Krishna Cabinet, Motamma, who lost the elections in 2004, rarely seen in her office at the Vidhana Soudha and practically invisible at functions like Women's Day or Children's Day.

In today's expansion exercise, it was widely expected that the Puttur MLA Shakuntala Shetty, one of the two Bharatiya Janata Party MLAs (the other being Bannur MLA Sunitha Veerappa Gowda), would be inducted. However, the BJP, which has chosen 11 ministers for the first round of Cabinet expansion, has given Nagaraj Shetty (Bantwal) a berth, as a way of giving representation to Dakshina Kannada district.

Deputy Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa, after the swearing-in ceremony, said, "We still have six more vacancies to fill, and we will certainly induct a woman Minister."

There are six women in the present Legislative Assembly. M.K. Nagamani of the Janata Dal (U) , wife of the late K.N. Nage Gowda, represents Kirugavalu (Mandya district). Apart from the two BJP women legislators and Ms. Marulasiddanagowda, there are two women from the Janata Dal (S): Parimala Nagappa (Hanur) and Vijayalakshmi Bandasiddegowda (Srirangapatna).

Outnumbered

Grossly outnumbered by men in a House of 224 members, women in the 12th Legislative Assembly have remained a silent group.

The distaff side of the Legislative Council is bigger, and there are nine women "elders." Of them seven belong to the Congress and two to the BJP. The BJP MLCs are Vimala Gowda and Shoba Karandlaje, and both have been left out of the party's team of ministers probably because the party has included three of its men from the Upper House.

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