As many as five Members of Parliament, including Janata Dal (Secular) State president and former Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy and the former Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, from Karnataka were sworn in on Sunday as part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Cabinet as he entered his third term.
Mr. Kumaraswamy, Ms. Sitharaman, and five-time MP from Dharwad Pralhad Joshi were sworn in as Cabinet Ministers. Elected from Bengaluru North, Shobha Karandlaje was reinducted into the Cabinet as a Minister of State along with Tumakuru MP V. Somanna.
Prominent MPs from Karnataka missing out on the Cabinet berth included former Chief Ministers Basavaraj Bommai and Jagadish Shettar, who were hoping to find berths in the North Karnataka and Lingayat quota besides seniority.
While Rajya Sabha member from Karnataka Ms. Sitharaman was the sixth person to be sworn in, she was followed by Mr. Kumaraswamy and Mr. Joshi. Mr. Joshi apparently won the confidence of the BJP top leaders during his earlier stint as Union Minister for Parliamentary Affairs. He is being seen as successor to the late BJP leader H.N. Ananth Kumar.
Rajya Sabha member Nirmala Sitharaman taking oath as Minister at the swearing-in ceremony of new Union government, at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi on Sunday. | Photo Credit: PTI
The selection of Mr. Somanna, veteran Lingayat leader from South Karnataka, for the Ministry indicates that the BJP high command has its own calculations with respect to the dominant community. Mr. Somanna, who does not enjoy good relations with the party’s Lingayat strongman B.S. Yediyurappa, had earlier abided by the party’s diktat and contested from two Assembly seats, including Varuna against the then chief ministerial candidate of the Congress, Siddaramaiah, although unsuccessfully. It appears that the party has now chosen him as it did well in South Karnataka in the Lok Sabha polls.
Ms. Karandlaje, who hails from the dominant Vokkaliga community, appears to have been chosen for the Ministry as she is a prominent women’s leader. It is also being seen as a political representation to Bengaluru as she represents Bengaluru North constituency.
Besides Mr. Bommai and Mr. Shettar, Govind Karjol, whose name was doing rounds in the Scheduled Caste (left) quota, did not make the cut in the final list. Noted cardiologist and MP from Bengaluru Rural C.N. Manjunath, who emerged as the giant killer after he defeated D.K. Suresh, brother of KPCC president and Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar, was also a Cabinet probable. He, however, did not make it.
Deve Gowda extends wishes to Modi
The former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda, who could not make it to the swearing-in ceremony on Sunday, wished Prime Minister Narendra Modi luck for his third term. Reiterating his full support to the NDA, in his letter to the Prime Minister, he cited his health condition for not travelling to Delhi to be part of the swearing-in ceremony and thanked him for the invitation extended to him. “As a member of the NDA, we look forward to working with you (Mr. Modi) and helping you deliver your agenda of ‘Sab ka sath sabka vikas’.” He also thanked the Prime Minister for offering a Cabinet position to the JD(S).
