Almost a month after taking oath as the Chief Minister of Karnataka, BS Yediyurappa on Monday announced the allocation of portfolios for his cabinet colleagues as informed by the BJP High Command. The CM also announced he will have three deputies as earlier speculated.
The three Deputy CMs are MLAs Govind Karjol and Ashwath Narayan and Belagavi BJP leader and former MLA Laxman Savadi (Savadi lost the election in 2018). BJP sources had earlier said that announcing Laxman Savadi from the Lingayat community, Govind Karjol from the Dalit community and CN Ashwathnarayana from the Vokkaliga community as Deputy Chief Ministers, was a part of the party’s plan to show representation from across the major communities.
Independent MLA H Nagesh who had switched his allegiance from the Congress to the BJP and back more than once has also been rewarded and has been given the plum Excise Ministry.
The portfolio allocation was slated to occur on Sunday, and Yediyurappa had acted as a single-person cabinet during the floods that ravaged the state. The demise of former Union Minister Arun Jaitley, made the BJP high command postpone the announcement further.
Savadi, who once became infamous after he was caught watching porn while the assembly session was on, lost the assembly elections in 2018. He has been given the portfolio of Transportation.
Ashwath Narayan, the Bengaluru city MLA has got the portfolio of Higher Education, IT and BT and Science and Technology. Karjol will handle portfolios of the Public Works Department and the Social Welfare Department.
Other senior MLAs including former CM Jagadish Shettar, KS Eshwarappa and R Ashoka who were former CMs have also got high profile ministries.
Here is the full list: