The Karnataka government is all set to rearrange and expand the cabinet on Saturday evening. Six Congress legislators are joining Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy. The new cabinet ministers would be sworn in at 5:20 pm at Raj Bhavan by the Governor Vajubhai Vala.
A total of eight seats are vacant in the cabinet, in which two belong to Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) from its quota of twelve and six seats for Congress out of twenty-two. This will be the second cabinet expansion in the state.
"The JD(S)-Congress cabinet will be expanded on Saturday with the induction of six more legislators from our party to fill the vacancies in the 34-member ministry," said Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) President Dinesh Gundu Rao.
The Minister for Municipal Administration, Ramesh Jharkiholi and the Minister for Forest and Environment, R Shanker are most likely to resign from their positions as to designate two of the four senior members of Congress, Roshan Baig, MB Patil, HK Patil and Ramalinga Reddy.
According to a statement from the office of Congress party leader Siddaramaiah, the Congress members to be inducted for the cabinet positions are Sathish Jharkiholi, RB Thimmapur, Tanveer Sait, PT Parameshwar Naik, MTB Nagaraj, Rahim Khan, E Tukaram and CS Shivali.
CM HD Kumaraswamy told reporters that the party chief of JD(S) HD Deve Gowda will decide on the two legislators who will fill the vacancy and join the cabinet ministry.
