Two weeks after defeating the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in its only bastion in southern India, the Congress government, headed by state chief K. Siddaramaiah, introduced 24 ministers in the Karnataka state cabinet on Saturday.
Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot supervised the legislators' oath at the Raj Bhavan in the state capital Bengaluru.
Among the prominent Congress lawmakers who became part of Karnataka's local government were the party's ex-state president, Dinesh Gundu Rao, as well as Krishna Byregowda, H.K. Patil, Eshwar Khandre, H.C. Mahadevappa, K Venkatesh, and N Cheluvarayaswamy.
Others who made it to the cabinet are Shivanand Patil, Ramappa Balappa Timmapur, Madhu Bangarappa, D Sudhakar, Mankal Vaidya, Laxmi Hebbalkar, MC Sudhakar, B Nagendra, N Rajanna, Sharanabasappa Darshanapur, SS Mallikarjun, Shivaraj Sangappa Tangadagi, Sharanaprakash Rudrappa Patil, Santosh Lad, NS Boseraju, Suresha BS and Rahim Khan.
Among the new ministers, eight are considered to be D.K. Shivakumar loyalists. Shivakumar is the Congress Karnataka president and current deputy state chief.
Shivakumar is credited for the Congress' emphatic victory that gave the party its highest number of seats in Karnataka since 1989. While Congress registered victory in 135 constituencies, the BJP's figures tumbled to only 66.
He and Siddaramaiah have been engaged in a long tussle for the post of the state chief. Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge and the top leadership of the party, including former bosses Rahul and Sonia Gandhi, decided the leadership race, handing Siddaramaiah the reigns of Karnataka.
This is Siddaramaiah's second stint as Karnataka's state chief, having held the state's top position from 2013 to 2018.