Ten of the newly elected party-hoppers, who paved the way for a BJP government in the State last year, were sworn-in as Ministers on Thursday.
Those sworn in were S.T. Somashekhar, Ramesh L. Jarkiholi, Anand Singh, K. Sudhakar, B.A. Basavaraja, A. Shivaram Hebbar, B.C. Patil, K. Gopalaiah, Narayana Gowda and Shrimant B. Patil.
Of them, only two — Mr. Jarkiholi and Mr. Singh — have been Ministers earlier and the remaining eight were sworn-in as Ministers for the first time.
Mahesh Kumathalli was the only party-hopper MLA who, despite winning the recent bypoll, was not inducted into the Cabinet on Thursday. Chief Minister B. S. Yediyurappa on Wednesday said it had become difficult to accommodate Mr Kumathalli in the Cabinet but assured him of giving him “another big responsibility”.
The BJP had decided to induct three other Ministers from among BJP old-timers. However, as dissidence grew among aspirants who banded together and held multiple meetings, a cautious party took a step back on the eve of the expansion and restricted the exercise to include only party-hoppers.
