Karnataka Cabinet: Bengaluru Urban over-represented while 7 districts get no representation

In the 34-member Cabinet, eight ministers are from Kalyana Karnataka, seven each are from Kittur Karnataka, Old Mysore, and Bengaluru regions, three are from central Karnataka, and one is from coastal Karnataka.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah belongs to the Old Mysore region.

Related: Meet the 8 first-time ministers in the Karnataka Cabinet

Bengaluru gets lion’s share

In the fully-expanded Cabinet, Bengaluru gets the maximum representation despite the other districts performing well for the Congress in the recently concluded 2023 Karnataka Assembly Polls.

In Karnataka, Bengaluru has the highest Assembly constituencies with 28 seats. The Congress has managed to win only 12 of them, seats, whereas the BJP won 16. Of the 12 Congress MLAs, six are in Siddaramaiah’s Cabinet.

In Belagavi, which has the second-largest number of Assembly segments with 18 seats, the ruling party has won 11 seats, but of them only two MLAs have been given a place in the Cabinet.

BTM Layout MLA Ramalinga Reddy, Sarvagnanagar MLA KJ George, Byatarayanapura MLA Krishna Byre Gowda, Chamrajpet MLA Zameer Ahmed Khan, Gandhi Nagar MLA Dinesh Gundu Rao, and Hebbal MLA Byrathi Suresh  — legislators who have won multiple times from the Bengaluru Urban district — have sworn in as Cabinet members.

On the matter, Dinesh Gundu Rao told reporters in Bengaluru on Saturday: “Bengaluru Urban has got the maximum representation in the cabinet because there are many senior leaders who have won four times and were ministers in the previous governments.”

Related: Not an MLA or MLC, but NS Boseraju is Karnataka minister

Seven districts get no representation

Despite the Congress performing well, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has not accommodated MLAs from seven districts into the cabinet.

In Haveri, the party won five of the six seats. Only the Shiggaon Assembly segment there is represented by a BJP leader: former chief minister Basavaraj Bommai. Yet, no Congress MLA from here has been given a berth in the cabinet.

The Congress performed well in the Kodagu, Chikkamagaluru, Vijayanagara, and Chamarajanagar districts as well, winning maximum seats. However, they did have zero representation in the Cabinet as well.

ಕೊಡಗು, ಹಾವೇರಿ, ಹಾಸನ, ಚಿಕ್ಕಮಗಳೂರು ಮತ್ತಿತರ ಜಿಲ್ಲೆಗಳಿಗೆ ಪ್ರಾತಿನಿಧ್ಯ ಲಭಿಸಿಲ್ಲ. ಕೆಲವು ಮಾನದಂಡಗಳನ್ನು ಅನುಸರಿಸುವಾಗ ಕೆಲವು ಜಿಲ್ಲೆಗಳಿಗೆ ಪ್ರಾತಿನಿಧ್ಯ ದೊರೆತಿಲ್ಲ. ಉದಾಹರಣೆಗೆ ಕೊಡಗು ಜಿಲ್ಲೆಯಲ್ಲಿ ಇಬ್ಬರೂ ಮೊದಲ ಬಾರಿ ಶಾಸಕರಾಗಿದ್ದಾರೆ. ಹಾಗಾಗಿ ಸಚಿವ ಸಂಪುಟದಲ್ಲಿ ಪ್ರಾತಿನಿಧ್ಯ ನೀಡಲು ಸಾಧ್ಯವಾಗಿಲ್ಲ.
– ಮುಖ್ಯಮಂತ್ರಿ…

— CM of Karnataka (@CMofKarnataka) May 27, 2023

CM Siddaramaiah appeared to acknowledge this when he told reporters at Vidhana Soudha on Saturday: “Kodagu, Haveri, Hassan, Chikkamagaluru and a few other districts have not got representation in the Cabinet. It is because of certain criteria some districts did not get a place in the cabinet.”

He added: “In Kodagu, both are first-time MLAs, so it is not possible to give representation in the Cabinet. We have not given Cabinet berths to any of the first-time MLAs. This Cabinet is a blend of experienced and first-time ministers.”

The Congress won two out of eight seats in the Dakshina Kannada district, but did not give it representation in the cabinet. UT Khader from the district, however, has been elected Speaker.

Udupi, of course, is out of the race as the party did not win even one of the five seats there.

Except for Bengaluru Urban, no district has got more than two berths in the fully-expanded Cabinet.

The Belagavi, Vijayapura, Mysuru, Bidar, Kalaburagi, and Tumakuru districts have got two berths each in the Cabinet.

As many as 15 districts, including Gadag, Mandya, Bagalkot, Chitradurga and Raichur, have got one berth each in Siddaramaiah’s Cabinet.

Former minister and MLA C Puttarangashetty had been nominated as a candidate for the Deputy Speaker of the Karnataka Assembly.

He defeated BJP veteran V Somanna from the Chamarajanagara segment in the recently concluded Assembly polls.