Shillong, May 27: One week after entering office, the Congress administration led by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah expanded the cabinet by appointing 24 new ministers on Saturday.
Ten of the ministers were sworn in on May 20, including the chief minister Siddaramaiah and his deputy DK Shivakumar.
The list of MLAs who took oath on Saturday includes Dinesh Gundu Rao, Krishna Byre Gowda, Eshwar Khandre, Raheem Khan, Santosh Lad, K N Rajanna, K Ventakesh, HC Mahadevappa, Byrathi Suresh, Shivaraj Tangadi, R B Timmpur, B Nagendra, Lakshmi Hebbalkar, Madhu Bangarappa, D Sudhakar, Cheluvaraya Swami, Mankul Vaidya and MC Sudhakar.
Six Lingayats and four Vokkaligas are named on the list provided by the Congress.
Five ministers including Kuruba, Raju, Maratha, Ediga, and Mogaveera come from Other Backward Castes, three from Scheduled Castes, two from Scheduled Tribes. Brahmins now have a cabinet representative in Dinesh Gundu Rao.
Each of the Karnataka areas of Old Mysuru and Kalyana has seven ministers, while Kittur has six and central Karnataka has two.
According to a statement released on Friday night, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has found a balance by providing caste and region-based representation in addition to showing respect to both senior and junior MLAs.
