The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Five more Ministers sworn in

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, Jan 26, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Five more Ministers sworn in

Special Correspondent

JD(S)-BJP coalition Ministry now has 34 members, but no women

BANGALORE: The final phase of expansion of the H.D. Kumaraswamy Ministry is complete. With the induction of five members on Thursday, the strength of the Ministry has gone up to 34.

The striking feature of the swearing-in ceremony, which was a low-key affair, was that no women legislators were inducted.

The five slots were divided among legislators from the dominant Lingayat and Vokkaliga communities.

As expected, the Chief Minister inducted the former Ministers R. Srinivas (Alangur) and H.S. Mahadevaprasad, G.T. Deve Gowda, MLA, from the Janata Dal (S) and S. Shivanna and Appasaheb Pattanashetty, MLAs, from the Bharatiya Janata Party. All of them have been accorded Cabinet rank. There are no Ministers of State in the 34-member team.

Brief ceremony

The swearing-in ceremony was held in the Banquet Hall of the Raj Bhavan in the presence of a small audience, which mainly comprised family members of the new Ministers, coalition leaders and journalists. The function lasted 11 minutes.

Speaking to reporters after the expansion, Mr. Kumaraswamy said he was disappointed that he could not accommodate a woman in the Ministry.

This was because of the innate pressure in coalition politics to provide representation to various communities and regions, he explained.

But it did not mean that the Government would neglect women, he said and declared that the Government would give priority to the implementation of development programmes for women. "It is wrong to think that women's progress can be achieved by merely giving representation to women in the Ministry. There are instances in which governments have accommodated women in the Ministry but neglected the women's programmes," he said.

Women legislators of the coalition partners had been taken into confidence in the Ministry-expansion exercise, he said.

Board chairmen

He said the JD(S) would also finalise its nominees to boards and corporation in a couple of days. However, sources in the JD(S) said the nominations were expected to be made only by the end of this month or in the first week of February.

Not many legislators of the ruling combine, especially the BJP, were present at the swearing-in ceremony. Dissatisfaction among a section of BJP leaders with the choice of candidates for the Ministry is said to be the reason for their absence.

While several Ministers, legislators and State BJP president D.V. Sadananda Gowda attended the swearing-in ceremony, the BJP national general secretary H.N. Ananth Kumar's absence was striking. None of the national BJP leaders attended the function.

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