'Gave 75 % Vote To Congress': K’taka MLA Rudrappa Lamani's Supporters Protest Demanding Ministerial Post For Him

The supporters of Congress leader Rudrappa Lamani have staged a protest outside the KPCC office demanding a ministerial post for the leader.

The supporters of Congress leader Rudrappa Lamani's have staged a protest outside KPCC office demanding ministerial post for the leader. ( Image Source :Twitter/ANI )

Ahead of the swearing-in-ceremony in Karnataka on Saturday, where 24 ministers will take oath, the supporters of Congress leader Rudrappa Lamani have staged a protest outside Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) office demanding ministerial post for the leader, as reported by the news agency ANI.

"Our banjara community leader Rudrappa Lamani's name was there on the list till last night, but today we saw that his name was not there on the list. If our leader will not get the Ministerial post, we will protest against this because we gave our 75 % vote to Congress in the election, so there should be at least one leader from our community," one of the supporters of Congress Leader Rudrappa Lamani said, as quoted by ANI.

"Our banjara community leader Rudrappa Lamani's name was there on the list till last night, but today we saw that his name was not there on the list. If our leader will not get the Ministerial post, we will protest against this because we gave our 75 % vote to Congress in the… pic.twitter.com/d981vabEP4

— ANI (@ANI) May 27, 2023

The Karnataka Cabinet will be expanded on Saturday and 24 more ministers will take oath. The swearing-in ceremony will take place on Saturday afternoon and Congress has aimed to balance caste and regional equations through its choice of ministers.

The Karnataka government can have a maximum of 34 ministers. Last week, 10 ministers, including Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his deputy DK Shivakumar, were sworn-in in a ceremony that turned out to be a platform for the Opposition to show unity ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha election.

Among those who will take oath on Saturday are senior MLA HK Patil, Krishna Byregowda, N Cheluvarayaswamy, K Venkatesh, Dr HC Mahadevappa, Congress working president Eshwar Khandre and former Congress president Dinesh Gundu Rao.

Others who will make it to the Karnataka Cabinet are Kyathasandra N Rajanna,Sharanabasappa Darshanapur, Shivanand Patil, Ramappa Balappa Timmapur, S S Mallikarjun, Shivaraj Sangappa Tangadagi, Dr Sharanaprakash Rudrappa Patil, Mankal Vaidya, Laxmi Hebbalkar, Rahim Khan, D Sudhakar, Santosh Lad, N S Boseraju, Suresha BS, former CM S Bangarappa's son Madhu Bangarappa, Dr MC Sudhakar and B Nagendra.

Congress finalised the list after two days of hectic deliberations among Siddaramaiah, Shivakumar and AICC general secretaries KC Venugopal and Randeep Surjewala. The two Karnataka leaders were camping in the national capital for the last three days and held several rounds of discussions before announcing the list of ministers.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge and former party chief Rahul Gandhi gave their final nod to the list of names. Even though differences between Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar had erupted over names of probable ministers, they were ironed out during the deliberations in the capital. The two leaders also met Sonia Gandhi.

Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu and his Jharkhand counterpart Hemant Soren are likely to be present for Saturday's event. While portfolios have not been decided yet, minister KH Muniyappa said it would be announced by Saturday evening.