from Daijiworld News Network - Bangalore (GA) - Friday, 2-30 pm
Bangalore, Feb 17: The 15-day-old JD (S) - BJP coalition ministry headed by H D Kumaara Swaamy was expanded on Friday February 17. In its first phase of expansions, 20 ministers were inducted into the cabinet.
BJP got the larger share of ministerial berths in the expansion as 11 MLAs from the party were inducted into the cabinet as against 9 from JD (S). The swearing in ceremony was held at the portals of Vidhana Soudha here on Friday morning.
Governor T N Chaturvedi administered the oath of office and secrecy to the new ministers, all of cabinet rank.
Nagaraj Shetty and Dr V S Acharya
Bantwal MLA Nagaraj Shetty and senior BJP leader and MLC Dr V S Acharya represent the coastal districts of Dakshina Kannada and Udupi in the cabinet. With Nagraj Shetty becoming the minister, Bantwal constituency has hit a hat-trick for securing ministerial berth. Earlier the former MLAs B A Moideen and Ramanath Rai too had been the ministers after getting elected from the Bantwal constituency
Names of ministers:
BJP list includes KS Eshwarappa, Jagadish Shettar, DH Shankara Murthy, C Ramachandra Gowda, VS Acharya, CM Udasi, Govind Karjol, R Ashok, Katta Subramanya Naidu, D Sriramlu and Nagaraj Shetty.
Basavaraj Horatti, C Chenigappa, D T Jayakumar, Cheluvarayaswamy, Iqbal Answari, Sharanabasappa Darshanapur, Bandeppa Kashampur, Hanumanthappa Yelappa Halkod and Balachandra Jarkiholi of J D (S) took oath as ministers.
As known the JD (S)-BJP government had come into power on Friday February 3 with H D Kumaaraswaamy as the chief minister and Yediyurappa as his deputy.
BJP National vice-president Venkaiah Naidu, MP Ananth Kumar, former Mangalore MP V Dhananjaya Kumar, sitting Mangalore MP D V Sadananda Gowda and Mangalore MLA Yogish Bhat, Puttur MLA Shakuntala Bhat were also present on the occasion.
In response to a question, BJP national vice president Venkaiah Naidu said that now the BJP had come to power, it would strive to go to every village and make itself popular.
Responding to a quesion as to why, in spite of BJP's having a strong foothold in coastal Karnataka, only one MLA and an MLC got the minister's posts, MLA Yogish Bhat said whoever became the minister, all the party MLAs from the district would work as a team. More MLAs could be inducted into the cabinet in the next phase of expansion.