New Delhi: A week after the Congress came to power in Karnataka, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah expanded his cabinet with 24 ministers today sworn in. Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot administered oath of office and secrecy to them.
Karnataka government can have 34 ministers. Among them, 10 people including Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and Deputy Chief Minister D.K.Sivakumar were sworn in on May 20.

MLAs HK Patil, Krishna Byregowda, N Cheluvarayaswamy, K Venkatesh, HC Mahadevappa, Congress Working President Ishwar Khandre , former State Congress President Dinesh Gundu Raoamong others took oath today.

Others on the list are Kyathasandra N Rajanna, Sharanabasappa Darshanapur, Shivanand Patil, Ramappa Balappa Timmapur, SS Mallikarjun, Shivaraj Sangappa Tangadagi, Sharanaprakash Rudrappa Patil, Mankal Vaidya, Laxmi Hebbalkar, Rahim Khan, D Sudhakar, Santosh Lad, NS Boseraju, Suresha BS, Madhu Bangarappa, MC Sudhakar and B Nagendra.

According to Congress sources, Lakshmi Hebbalkar, Madhu Bangarappa, D Sudhakar,Cheluvaraya Swami, Mankul Vaidya and MC Sudhakar are close to Sivakumar.

The Congress list includes the names of six Lingayats and four Vokkalikars.

Three MLAs are from Scheduled Castes, two from Scheduled Tribes and five from Other Backward Communities — Kuruba, Raju, Maratha, Ediga and Mogaveera.

Brahmins also got representation in Dinesh Kundurao’s cabinet.

7 ministers each from Old Mysuru and Kalyana Karnataka regions, 6 from Kittur Karnataka region and 2 from Central Karnataka.

Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said that balance has been achieved by giving due respect to senior and junior MLAs and representation by caste and region.

He also said that eight Lingayats will be in the cabinet. Within them, various sections of society are represented.

The statement said there will be five Vokkalikas including Sivakumar.

The Cabinet will have nine Scheduled Caste ministers.

Portfolios are not yet allocated. Minister of State KH Muniyappa said that the portfolios will be announced by Saturday evening.

Both Siddaramaiah and Mr Sivakumar held several rounds of talks with the party leadership from Delhi over the past 3 days.

The names of the 24 MLAs were decided after several hours of heated deliberations between Siddaramaiah, Mr Sivakumar and top central leaders including All India Congress general secretaries KC Venugopal and Randeep Surjewala.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and former party president Rahul Gandhi gave final approval to the list.