Congress workers stage protest after leader denied Ministerial post in Siddaramaiah govt

A week after assuming power in Karnataka, Congress party in state on Friday announced list of 24 legislators who would be sworn in as Ministers, filling up all vacant ministerial positions. While party claimed that Chief Minister Siddaramaiah h ensured caste and region-wise representation, this move has sparked discontent among supporters of Congress leer Rudrappa Lamani.

Outside Karnataka Presh Congress Committee (KPCC) office, supporters of Rudrappa Lamani staged a protest, demanding a Ministerial post for ir leer, ANI reported. According to one of protesting supporters, Lamani's name was reportedly present on list until Friday night, only to be excluded when it was officially released. Notably, Lamani who won 2023 Karnataka Assembly elections from Haveri constituency with an 11,915 vote margin, was not featured in list of 24 names that were shortlisted for Ministerial posts. 

'We gave our 75% vote to Congress in election': Protesting Congress workers

Expressing ir disappointment over Congress' list of leers who will be sworn in as Ministers, one of supporters of Lamani stated, "Our Banjara community leer Rudrappa Lamani's name was re on list till last night, but today we saw that his name was not re on list. If our leer will not get ministerial post, we will protest against this because we gave our 75% vote to Congress in election, so re should be at least one leer from our community."

24 MLAs to take oath as Ministers in Karnataka

According to Congress lits, MLAs HK Patil, Krishna Byregowda, N Cheluvarayaswamy, K Venkatesh, HC Mahevappa, Congress working president Eshwar Khandre and former state Congress president Dinesh Gundu Rao are among those who will take oath on Saturday noon.

Ors on list are Kyathasandra N Rajanna, Sharanabasappa Darshanapur, Shivanand Patil, Ramappa Balappa Timmapur, S S Mallikarjun, Shivaraj Sangappa Tangagi, Sharanaprakash Rudrappa Patil, Mankal Vaidya, Laxmi Hebbalkar, Rahim Khan, D Sudhakar, Santosh L, NS Boseraju, Suresha B S, Mhu Bangarappa, MC Sudhakar and B Nagendra. It is pertinent to mention that Karnataka government can have 34 ministers. Ten of m, including CM Siddaramaiah and his deputy DK Shivakumar, were sworn in on May 20.

(With inputs from ANI)