24 ministers to take oath in Siddaramaiah cabinet today

After days of intense discussion, the Karnataka government has finally narrowed down the candidates for its council of ministers.At least 20 to 24 new ministers are now scheduled to be inducted in the Siddaramaiah-led Congress government in Karnataka on Saturday, party sources said on Thursday.

Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, and Deputy Chief Minister DK Shivakumar had met party General Secretaries KC Venugopal and Randeep Singh Surjewala to discuss the cabinet expansion on Thursday.The meeting of the four leaders lasted for over five hours in three sessions where the names of several MLAs for ministerial posts were discussed, the source said.The source said that 20 to 24 more ministers will take oath on Saturday around 11.30 am. MLAs H K Patil, Krishna Byregowda, N Cheluvarayaswamy, K Venkatesh, H C Mahadevappa, Congress working president Eshwar Khandre and former state Congress president Dinesh Gundu Rao are among those who will take oath.

Others on the list are Kyathasandra N Rajanna, Sharanabasappa Darshanapur, Shivanand Patil, Ramappa Balappa Timmapur, S S Mallikarjun, Shivaraj Sangappa Tangadagi, Sharanaprakash Rudrappa Patil, Mankal Vaidya, Laxmi Hebbalkar, Rahim Khan, D Sudhakar, Santosh Lad, N S Boseraju, Suresha B S, Madhu Bangarappa, M C Sudhakar and B Nagendra.Lakshmi Hebbalkar, Madhu Bangarappa, D Sudhakar, Cheluvaraya Swami, Mankul Vaidya and M C Sudhakar are close to Shivakumar, according to Congress sources.The Congress' list figures names of six Lingayats and four Vokkaligas.