Karnataka ministry expanded, four inducted

 The Karnataka ministry was expanded on Thursday here, with the induction of four new cabinet ministers.

Governor Vajubhai R. Vala administered the oath of office to G. Parameshwara, Manohar Tahasildar, Vinay Kulkarni and Arakalagud Manju at the Raj Bhavan here.

All the four new ministers took oath in Kannada.

Parameshwara, a Dalit from Tumakuru district, is the ruling Congress state unit president and a member of the state legislative council.

Following his induction into the government, Parameshwar will relinquish his party post, where his five year term in any case ends on October 31.

Tahsildar, a Balija, is a legislative assembly member from Haveri and Manju, a Vokkaliga, is a legislator from Hassan, while Kulkarni, a Reddy-Lingayat, from Dharwad in the state's northern region.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah will allocate portfolios to the new ministers after consulting the party high command soon.

This is the second cabinet expansion since the party returned to power in May 2013 after the first on January 1, 2014, when lawmakers Roshan Baig and D.K. Shivakumar were made ministers.

Thursday's expansion will take the number of ministers to 34, including the chief minister and complete the quota, which is 15 percent of the legislative assembly's strength of 225.

The list of new ministers was finalised in New Delhi on Wednesday at a meeting of party president Sonia Gandhi, vice president Rahul Gandhi, Siddaramaiah, Parameshwar and general secretary Digvijaya Singh, who is in-charge of the party's affairs in the state.