BSY allocates additional portfolios to 14 ministers

Team Udayavani, Sep 28, 2019, 11:58 AM IST

Bengaluru: Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa on Friday allocated additional portfolios to 14 ministers in his cabinet.

Deputy Chief Minister Ashwath Narayan C N, who had the portfolio of Higher Education, IT & BT, Science and Technology, has been given additional charge of Medical Education while another Deputy Chief Minister Laxman Savadi with Transport department has been given additional charge of Agriculture department.

The State government has issued an official gazette notification on allocating additional portfolios to ministers.

In a first, on August 26, Yediyurappa had appointed three Deputy Chief Ministers, while allocating portfolios to 17 newly appointed ministers, who were inducted into the cabinet on August 20.

Ministers, who have been given additional portfolios include- Rural Development and Panchayat Raj Minister K S Eshwarappa with Youth Empowerment and Sports; Revenue Minister R Ashoka with Municipal Administration, Corporations and Local Bodies.

Minister for Large and Medium Scale Industries Minister Jagadish Shettar with Public Enterprises; Health Minister B Sriramulu with Backward Classes Welfare;

Primary and Secondary Education Minister Suresh Kumar with Labour; Housing Minister V Somanna with Horticulture & Sericulture; Tourism/ Kannada and Culture Minister C T Ravi with Sugar; Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai with Cooperation.

Also, Mines and Geology Minister C C Patil with Forest, Ecology and Environment; Excise Minister H Nagesh with Skill Development, Entrepreneurship & Livelihood;

Animal Husbandry Minister Prabhu Chavan with Minority Welfare, Haj & Wakf; and Women and Child Development Minister Shahsikala Jolle with Food, Civil Supplies & Consumer Affairs.
Yediyurappa has kept 16 ministerial posts vacant to accommodate some more BJP members and from among those 17 disqualified former legislators who helped him come to power.

The bypolls to 15 out of 17 seats represented by disqualified MLAs,which the Election Commission had decided to defer, will now be held on December 5, according to a new notification issued on Friday.

The Election Commission had told the Supreme Court on Thursday that it would defer the October 21 bypolls to 15 Assembly constituencies in Karnataka till the apex court finally decides the pleas filed by 17 disqualified MLAs challenging their disqualification.

The then assembly Speaker Ramesh Kumar had disqualified 17 Congress-JD(S) MLAs, whose resignation and absence during the trust vote led to the fall of the H D Kumaraswamy headed coalition government, under the anti-defection law, which they have challenged in the Supreme Court.

On getting relief from the apex court, BJP plans to give tickets to most of the disqualified MLAs during the bypolls and some of them would be inducted into the cabinet, party sources have said.