Ahead of the swearing-in-ceremony in Karnataka on Saturday, the supporters of Congress leader Rudrappa Lamani staged a dharna (protest) outside Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) office. The supporters of Lamani, who represents the Banjara community, protested by raising slogans against the Siddaramaiah government for not giving their leader a ministerial post in the cabinet.
The Congress workers were miffed that not even one minister representing their community found a place in the cabinet, despite Chief Minister Siddaramaiah ensuring a caste and region-wise representation in his cabinet.
A week after taking over, the Congress government led by Chief Minister Siddaramaiah carried out a cabinet expansion exercise by inducting 24 legislators at the Raj Bhavan in Bengaluru on Saturday. However, the list of inducted ministers did not include Congress MLA Rudrappa Lamani.
Rudrappa Manappa Lamani, who represents the Banjara community in the state had won the 2023 Karnataka Assembly elections from Haveri constituency.
Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had ensured caste and region-wise representation in his cabinet, but when Rudrappa Lamani, who represents the Banjara community in the state, did not find a place in his cabinet, his supporters expressed disappointment and staged a protest outside the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) office.
Expressing displeasure over Congress’ list of leaders who will be sworn in as Ministers, one of the supporters of Lamani stated, “Our Banjara community leader Rudrappa Lamani’s name was there on the list till last night, but today we saw that his name was not there on the list. If our leader will not get the ministerial post, we will protest against this because we gave our 75% vote to Congress in the election, so there should be at least one leader from our community.”
Notably, three days ago, supporters of Congress MLA D Sudhakar held a protest on Wednesday outside Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s residence here demanding a ministerial post for him. However, he was later given a ministerial post.
Karnataka cabinet expansion, 24 Congress MLAs take oath
On May 26, the Congress party in Karnataka released a list of 24 legislators who will take over as ministers on Saturday (May 27). The Karnataka government can have 34 ministers. Ten of them, including Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his deputy DK Shivakumar, were sworn in on May 20. The rest 24 legislators would be sworn in today (Saturday, May 27).
According to reports, Siddharamiah arrived in the national capital on May 24 to discuss Cabinet expansion with party leadership. On May 26, the Karnataka CM arrived at 10 Janpath in Delhi on May 26 to meet Congress Leader Sonia Gandhi. This was the first time Siddaramaiah met Sonia Gandhi after he took oath as Karnataka CM. He met Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi to discuss Cabinet expansion.
After several rounds of discussion with the party’s top leadership, including AICC general secretaries K C Venugopal and Randeep Surjewala, the names of the 24 MLAs were decided. Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and former party chief Rahul Gandhi gave the final nod to the list. Reports suggest that some differences between Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar had emerged over names of probable ministers but it was eventually sorted out during the course of discussions.
MLAs H K Patil, Krishna Byregowda, N Cheluvarayaswamy, K Venkatesh, H C Mahadevappa, Congress working president Eshwar Khandre and former state Congress president Dinesh Gundu Rao are among those who will take oath on Saturday noon.
Others on the list are Kyathasandra N Rajanna, Sharanabasappa Darshanapur, Shivanand Patil, Ramappa Balappa Timmapur, S S Mallikarjun, Shivaraj Sangappa Tangadagi, Sharanaprakash Rudrappa Patil, Mankal Vaidya, Laxmi Hebbalkar, Rahim Khan, D Sudhakar, Santosh Lad, N S Boseraju, Suresha B S, Madhu Bangarappa, M C Sudhakar and B Nagendra.
Amongst those who have been named few ministers namely Lakshmi Hebbalkar, Madhu Bangarappa, D Sudhakar, Cheluvaraya Swami, Mankul Vaidya and M C Sudhakar are reported to be very close to Deputy CM Shivakumar.
As per the list released, nine SC/STs, eight Lingayats, five Vokkaligas, one Muslim, one Christian, one Jain and one Brahmin leader have found places in the cabinet, which is why, now the supporters of the Banjara community have started protesting questioning the Congress government why their representative did not find a place in the cabinet.