Karnataka's long-pending cabinet expansion finally took shape on Monday, with 20 Congress MLAs sworn in as ministers at Raj Bhavan in Bengaluru.
The swearing-in ceremony will be held later in the day at 4 pm. Earlier, a report by PTI said the Congress leadership was carefully assessing caste, religious and regional equations while finalising the list.
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Karnataka can have a maximum of 34 ministers, including the chief minister. The state had 14 ministers, including Shivakumar, before Monday's expansion.
The 20 new ministers sworn in are:
PM Narendraswamy, Shivaraj Tangadagi, Rudrappa Lamani, KS Basavanthappa, B Nagendra, T Raghumoorthy, BZ Zameer Ahmed Khan, Rizwan Arshad, Santosh Lad, Madhu Bangarappa, Putturangashetty, Mankala Vaidya, Dr Ajay Singh, N Chaluvaraya Swamy, KM Shivalinge Gowda, HC Balakrishna, Gayathri Shanthegowda, Basvaraj Rayareddi, Vijayanand Kashappanavar and Laxman Savadi.
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Along with the ministerial appointments, four other key legislative posts were also approved. GS Patil will serve as Karnataka Legislative Assembly Speaker, AS Ponnanna as Deputy Legislative Assembly Speaker, Saleem Ahmed as Legislative Council Chairperson, and Umashree as Legislative Council Deputy Chairperson.
With the induction of the new ministers, Karnataka's Council of Ministers now stands at 34, the maximum permissible strength.
