Yeddyurappa allocates portfolios to Ministers

Almost ten days after they were sworn in as Ministers in the first-ever BJP Government in South India, Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa allocated various portfolios to his ministerial colleagues.

However, Yeddyurappa appears to have established full control over the Government by retaining with himself a total of ten departments including the much-sought-after portfolios of Urban Development, Mines, Bangalore City Development, Forest and Finance.

The sensitive portfolio of Home, which had become the bone of contention among the Ministers, has been entrusted to senior party colleague and MLC V S Acharya. The intelligence wing of the Home Ministry has, however, been retained with the Chief Minister in accordance with the practice of his predecessors.

The final list of portfolios to be allocated to the Ministers was prepared after marathon discussions between Yeddyurappa and senior party colleagues and sent to Governor Rameshwar Thakur’s office late on Saturday night. The Governor issued a notification allotting the portfolios well past midnight on Saturday.

Most Ministers, who had spent the last ten days wrangling for lucrative departments, learnt about their respective portfolios only on Sunday morning.

Bellary strongmen Karunakar Reddy and Janardhan Reddy, popularly known as Reddy brothers, who had been eying plum portfolios in recognition of their efforts to secure the support of six independents crucial for the survival of the BJP Government, have been given Revenue and Tourism respectively. Another Minister from Bellary Sriramulu has been awarded Health and Family Welfare.

The lone Muslim Minister Mumtaz Ali Khan has been put in charge of Minority Welfare and Wakf while the only woman Minister Shobha Karandlaje has been given the responsibility of Rural Development and Panchayat Raj.

The other portfolios announced are Public Works to C M Udasi, IT and BT, besides Excise to Katta Subramanya Naidu, Transport to R Ashok, Large and Medium industries to Murugesh Nirani, Law and Parliamentary Affairs to Suresh Kumar, Primary and Secondary Education to Visveswar Hegde Kageri, Medical Education to Ramachandra Gowda, Higher Education to Arvind Limbavali, Agriculture to S A Ravindranath, Minor Irrigation to Govind Karjol and Labour to Bachche Gowda.

The other portfolios like Major Irrigation went to Basavaraja Bommai, Animal Husbandry to Revu Naik, Fisheries to Krishna Palemar, Small Scale Industries and Sericulture to Venkataramanappa, Housing and Muzrai to Krishnaiah Shetty, Food and Civil Supplies to Hartal Halappa, Women and Child Development to Narendra Swamy, Co-operation to Lakshman Savadi, Horticulture to S K Bellubbi, Agricultural Marketing to Shivaraj Tangadagi, Social Welfare to D Sudhakar and Textiles to Goolihatti Shekar.