A NEW BEGINNING: The new Ministers waving to the crowd as they arrive for the swearing-in ceremony in Bangalore on Friday. — Photo: V. Sreenivasa Murthy

BANGALORE: In the first expansion of the two-week old Janata Dal (Secular)-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Government, Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy on Friday inducted 20 Ministers — 11 from the BJP and nine from the Janata Dal (S).

Governor T.N. Chaturvedi administered oath of office and secrecy to the new Ministers on the flight of steps of the Vidhana Soudha from 10.10 a.m. All the 20 are Cabinet Ministers.

What is striking about the expansion is that 14 of those sworn in have become Ministers for the first time. As the BJP is in power for the first time in the State, 10 of its 11 Ministers are entering the Government for the first time. The only exception is C.M. Udasi, a former Minister in a Janata Dal government. Most of the BJP Ministers have long experience in public life in the State.

The expansion raises the size of the Ministry to 22 and there are 12 more posts to be filled. The coalition partners have a quota of six each in the vacancies. It has been agreed between the two that the BJP will have 18 Ministers and the JD (S) 16. In the first instalment of expansion, women have been excluded.

Large gathering

The swearing-in ceremony was watched by a large number of invitees and thousands of supporters of the new Ministers.

It was a repeat of the jubilation witnessed on February 3 when the Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa were sworn in. Care was taken to complete the swearing-in ceremony by 10.45 a.m. so as not to disturb the proceedings in the Karnataka High Court which faces the Vidhana Soudha.

The swearing-in ceremony was attended by Mr. Kumaraswamy, Mr. Yediyurappa, Speaker of the Legislative Assembly Krishna, Leader of the Opposition in the Legislative Assembly and former Chief Minister N. Dharam Singh, senior leaders of the BJP M. Venkaiah Naidu, H.N. Ananth Kumar and Janata Dal (S) leader N. Thippanna.

Dignified swearing in

The fact that the Ministers were sworn in one after the other lent dignity to the occasion. When there was no ceiling on the size of the Ministry, groups of Ministers were sworn in on some occasions. The first to be called was Basavaraj H. Horatti of the Janata Dal (S) followed by K.S. Eswarappa of the BJP.

The Janata Dal (S) first and the BJP next order was maintained till the 17th Minister was sworn in.

Mr. Horatti and Mr. Eshwarappa were followed by C. Chennigappa (JD-S), BJP State unit President Jagadish Shettar, D.T. Jayakumar (JD-S), BJP Floor Leader in the Legislative Council D.H. Shankaramurthy, N. Chaluvaraya Swamy (JD-S), Ramachandra Gowda (BJP), Iqbal Ansari (JD-S), V.S. Acharya (BJP), Sharanabasappa Bapugowda Darshanapur (JD-S), C.M. Udasi (BJP), Bandeppa Kashempur (JD-S), Govinda M. Karajol (BJP), Alkod Yellappa Hanumanthappa (JD-S), R. Ashok (BJP), Balachandra Lakshmanrao Jarakiholi (JD-S) and Katta Subramanya Naidu, D. Sriramulu and B.M. Nagaraja Shetty (all BJP).

Caste factor

From the two parties, five Vokkaligas (BJP-3 and JD(S)-2), four Lingayats (two each), one Brahmin and one Vyshya (both BJP), two Kurubas (one from each party), four from the Other Backward Classes and three from Scheduled Castes (two from BJP and one from JD-S), one Scheduled Tribes (JD-S) and one Muslim (JD-S) were appointed as Ministers.

All the Ministers took the oath in the name of God and in Kannada. Mr. Ansari, who took the oath in the name of Allah, uttered a one-line hymn from the Koran before that while Mr. Shetty uttered the prayer "Harihi aum". While Mr. Kashempur raised the slogan "Jai Hind", Mr. Ansari ended his oath taking with "Jai Hind Jai Karnataka".

Among the new Ministers, three from the BJP are members of the Legislative Council. One of the JD (S) Ministers, Mr. Horatti too is an MLC.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail