17 ministers take oath in first expansion of BS Yediyurappa’s Cabinet

Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa on Tuesday expanded his Cabinet, for the first time after assuming charge on July 26, by inducting 17 MLAs as ministers. All the seventeen lawmakers were administered the oath of office and secrecy by Governor Vajubhai Vala at the Raj Bhavan.

Karnataka can have a maximum of 34 Ministers, including the Chief Minister. 

These names were finalised after multiple rounds of discussions and meetings with Home Minister and BJP chief Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The green signal to form his Cabinet was given after Yediyurappa run the government with a "one-man cabinet" for over 20 days.

#Karnataka: B Sriramulu takes oath as Karnataka Cabinet Minister, in the presence of Governor Vajubhai Vala and Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa, in Bengaluru. pic.twitter.com/SFaVmiWDib

— ANI (@ANI) August 20, 2019

Among those who were administered the oath at the Raj Bhavan are - include former Chief Minister Jagadish Shettar, two former deputy Chief Ministers - KS Eshwarappa and R Ashoka, independent MLA H Nagesh and Laxman Sangappa Savadi, who is not a member of the Assembly or Council, and MLC Kota Srinivas Poojari.

Others sworn in were - Govind M Karajol, Ashwath Narayan CN, B Sreeramulu, S Suresh Kumar, V Somanna, CT Ravi, Basavaraj Bommai, JC Madhu Swamy, CC Patil, Prabhu Chauhan and Shashikala Jolle Annasaheb, who is the only woman Cabinet Minister.

Earlier on Monday, the chief minister sent an official list of 17 ministers to be inducted into the Cabinet to the governor, requesting him to administer the oath to them.

Amid pressure from within, the opposition Congress and the JDS too had hit out at the BJP over the delay in cabinet expansion and had even raised questions about government's "existence".

The Congress had claimed that Yediyurappa's one-man cabinet administration "resembled the President's rule".