Karnataka’s Cabinet Expansion Slips Again: Seven weeks after taking charge, DK Shivakumar is still 20 ministers short 

Twenty new ministers were to take the oath at the Glass House at Karnataka’s Lok Bhavan today, but the cabinet expansion has once again been delayed.

The list was to have been finalised in New Delhi on Tuesday. Instead, Congress leaders joined an opposition sit-in outside the Prime Minister's residence at 7, Lok Kalyan Marg over alleged examination-paper leaks in NEET-UG and the police action against student-led protesters who had marched towards Parliament the previous day. Rahul Gandhi was removed from the road and taken by bus to Chhatrasal Stadium in Model Town, where he was held for about two hours. Priyanka Gandhi Vadra was taken to Mandir Marg police station and other leaders to Kingsway Camp. Karnataka Chief Minister DK Shivakumar, in Delhi for the Cabinet talks, was among those protesting, and said police tried to remove him before Gandhi asked him to step aside. “The meeting scheduled for Tuesday could not be held due to unavoidable circumstances,” he told reporters at Karnataka Bhavan afterwards, adding that the high command was supreme and would decide.

Karnataka governments have often run with berths unfilled. BS Yediyurappa governed alone for 25 days in 2019 and carried vacancies for months afterwards. But seven weeks is long by recent standards for a first expansion. HD Kumaraswamy's coalition was 15 days old when 25 ministers were sworn in on 6 June 2018. Siddaramaiah took oath with eight ministers on 20 May 2023 and filled all 34 places exactly a week later. Since 14 July there has been an additional reason to wait. Leaders generally avoid auspicious business during Aashada masa, which runs to 12 August.

Not that Shivakumar has been idle in the meantime. Since taking oath on 3 June he has announced free bus passes for students on non-luxury government buses, a Rs 2,000-crore programme to repair Bengaluru's roads, a plan for a private-sector employment exchange, a push to convert ‘B’ khata properties to ‘A’ khata, and a one-time exemption from occupancy certificates for permanent power connections within Greater Bengaluru Authority limits, subject to conditions on plot size and deviation. The opening weeks have gone more smoothly than the succession battle that preceded them, and the expansion is his opportunity to make the government recognisably his own.

The Cabinet has been running at 14 out of a permitted 34. Thirteen ministers took oath alongside him, with G Parameshwara as Deputy Chief Minister. Eleven had served under Siddaramaiah. The exceptions were UT Khader, who resigned the Speakership to accept a berth, and Siddaramaiah's son Yathindra. The list held three Vokkaligas including the Chief Minister, three Dalits, three Lingayats, two Kurubas and one member each from the Muslim, Christian and Scheduled Tribe communities. Margaret Alva said publicly that she would have liked to see at least one Congress woman in the Cabinet and was deeply disappointed there was none. The party has nine women legislators in the state—four MLAs and five MLCs.

The first ministry also included Siddaramaiah's close associate Byrathi Suresh and his son Yathindra, and a number of younger legislators from his camp are expected in the second tranche. He has, according to party sources, been arguing for the induction of BK Hariprasad, now state Congress president, on the reasoning that it would improve coordination between party and government and help the Congress among OBC voters. Reports suggest three or four places could go to Kalyana Karnataka, Mallikarjun Kharge's home region.

Rahul Gandhi has meanwhile consistently pressed for younger and first-time ministers. That is where the list stalled. The state proposal went to Delhi weighted towards former ministers, while Gandhi sought more new faces. Randeep Surjewala, the AICC general secretary in charge of Karnataka, said afterwards that he expected the exercise to be completed before the Assembly convenes on 6 August.

“New faces”, in these discussions, often means only someone outside the present ministry. Some are generationally new and dynastically old: Roopakala Shashidhar is the daughter of KH Muniyappa, a serving minister and former Union minister. Ajay Singh is the son of former chief minister Dharam Singh. And the seniors have not gone anywhere. RV Deshpande, 79, a nine-time MLA from Haliyal and the senior-most member of the Assembly, is chairperson of the Administrative Reforms Commission and is seeking a return to the Cabinet.

The clearest representational gap remains the absence of women. Laxmi Hebbalkar, Kalaburagi North MLA Kaneez Fatima, KGF MLA Roopakala Shashidhar, MLC Umashree, Mudigere MLA Nayana Motamma and MLC Arathi Krishna are the names in circulation, with reports suggesting two or three could be included.

According to party leaders, the Vokkaliga claimants include seven-term MLA TB Jayachandra, five-term MLA HC Balakrishna, KM Shivalinge Gowda, former minister N Cheluvarayaswamy and Sharath Bachegowda. Lingayat names include Laxman Savadi, Vijayananda Kashappanavar, Appaji Nadagouda, Ashok Pattan and Basavaraj Rayareddy. Rizwan Arshad, Tanveer Sait, Saleem Ahmed and Kaneez Fatima lead the minority list, where up to three places are thought possible, and AS Ponnanna's induction is being discussed for Kodava representation. HK Patil, BR Patil and Dinesh Gundu Rao are the names most often mentioned for the Speaker's chair, vacant since Khader vacated it.

The BJP has called the delay administrative paralysis. R Ashoka, the Leader of the Opposition, claimed on 23 June that Agriculture, School Education and Higher Education had gone a month without ministers. All unallocated departments are currently being held by the Chief Minister.

Reports put the field of ministerial aspirants at roughly 40 to 50. The Ramalinga Reddy episode from last month is an indicator of what a single disappointment could cost the Congress. Promised Bengaluru Development and given Major and Medium Irrigation, he announced his resignation two days after taking oath and withdrew it the following day after meeting Shivakumar and the intervention of the wider party leadership. Twenty vacancies will produce more than one such conversation.