M P Prakash clinches Home Ministry in Karnataka

Former Deputy Chief Minister M P Prakash, who was inducted into the
coalition ministry in Karnataka recently, has managed to clinch the prestigious Home Ministry from Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy.

According to the notification on allocation of portfolios issued late on Thursday night, Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy had given up the Home Portfolio in favour of M P Prakash, but had retained the charge of police intelligence wing.

The decision to allocate Home portfolio to M P Prakash was taken by senior leadership of the JD (S).

Kumaraswamy’s elder brother H D Revanna, who also made a come-back to the coalition Ministry, was entrusted with the Public Works and Energy portfolios, which he had held in the erstwhile Dharam Singh Ministry.

The other JD (S) Minister Zameer Ahmed Khan was given independent charge of Wakf and Haj while his colleague H K Kumaraswamy was entrusted with the Ministry of Women and Child Welfare.

The BJP too had to effect a minor reshuffle of portfolios while allocating charge of Ministries to its newly inducted Ministers. Deputy Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa had to give up the Major and Medium Industries portfolios to party colleague Katta Subramanya Naidu, who was holding Small Scale Industries portfolio.

The Small Scale Industries portfolio went to Shivananda Naik, the newly inducted BJP Minister. Shashikanth Nayak has been allotted Horticuture Ministry while Revu Naik has been given the Animal Husbandry portfolio. S A Ravindranath will be the new Minister for Rural Water Supply and Sugar.

Though the Ministers were sworn in on Wednesday morning, a final decision on the allocation of portfolios was taken only late on Thursday due to the dissatisfaction among a few Ministers over their portfolios.