Karnataka: Newly inducted ministers in Kumaraswamy government yet to get portfolios

Bengaluru: Two independent Karnataka MLAs, H Nagesh and R Shankar who were inducted into the Karnataka Cabinet on June 14, are yet to be assigned any portfolio.

The two were inducted into the Cabinet after humiliating defeat of Congress and JD(S) in the recently concluded Lok Sabha elections.

The latest development is that chief minister Kumaraswamy has set June 24 as the date to allot portfolios to these two ministers. It is said that there were rumours of toppling the government after the Lok Sabha defeat. Thus though a number of MLAs from Congress and JD(S) were expecting ministerial berths, two independents were offered the positions, with an obvious bid to keep them in the fold and join the BJP.

R Shankar of the Karnataka Pragnyavantha Janata Party (KPJP) was the Forest, Ecology and Environment Department in the Kumaraswamy cabinet. But he was asked to resign during the reshuffling of the government in December 2018.

Angered by this, Shankar had left the coalition and before the speculations of him joining BJP came true, he was offered a cabinet berth by the coalition government. Currently, he has merged KPJP with Congress.

Currently, Ministry of Education and Municipal Administration are vacant and the two ministers are likely to be allotted these ministries.

Veteran Congress leader DK Shivakumar holds two ministries - Water Resources and Medical Education. There are speculations that Medical Education Department also might be offered to one of the independent ministers, especially H Nagesh, as he has served as an officer in various capacities.

But reports state that Shankar is demanding the forest department.

However, reports also claim that the decision to fix the date to allot portfolio has not been discussed in the coordination committee and this could prove to be a problem between Congress and JD(S).
 

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