This Newly Appointed Minister In Karnataka Prabhu Chauhan Took Oath In The Name Of 'Gaumata'

A week after Karnataka got its new government led by Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai, his cabinet took oath.

A total of 29 MLAs took the oath as ministers in the first cabinet expansion, at an event held at the Raj Bhavan in Bengaluru.

Some of them stood out from others for their unique oaths.

Most notably, Prabhu Chauhan, the BJP MLA from Aurad constituency, who took the oath in the name of Gaumata and ¡°Seva Lal.¡±

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He also came dressed in the traditional Lambani outfit, for the ceremony. Chauhan was the minister in charge of Animal Husbandry in the previous cabinet when the state banned cattle slaughter.

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Another minister, Murugesh Nirani, a popular leader from the Lingayat sub-sect, did so in the name of gods and farmers.

Anand Singh, first among the defectors, took oath in the name of Vijayanagara Virupaksha and ¡®Thaayi¡¯ (mother) Bhuvaneshwari, a revered goddess in Karnataka.

Six fresh faces

The new cabinet is anything but new as 23 of them were Ministers in the previous BS Yediyurappa cabinet, while just six are fresh faces.

They are V Sunil Kumar (Karkala), Araga Jnanendra (Thirthahalli), Munirathna (R R Nagar), Halappa Achar (Yelburga), Shankar Patil Munenkopp (Navalgunda) and B C Nagesh (Tiptur).

There is just one woman in the cabinet in the form of Shashikala Jolle.

As far as community representation goes, the dominant Lingayats has the majority with 9 ministers including CM Bommai.

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Ministers from other communities include 7 Vokkaligas, 7 OBCs, 3 SCs, 2 Brahmins, 1 ST and 1 Reddy.

Bommai has inducted 10 legislators who had joined the BJP after quitting the Congress-JD(S) coalition in 2019, and helped his party to capture power once again in the state.

While Bengaluru city has got the lion's share in the cabinet with seven Ministers, thirteen districts - Mysuru, Kalaburagi, Ramanagara, Kodagu, Raichur, Hassan, Vijayapura, Ballari, Davangere, Kolar, Yadgir, Chikkamagaluru and Chamarajanagara have not got any representation.

However, the most notable omission from the list of new ministers was BY Vijayendra, the son of former CM Yediyurappa.

It was widely believed that the younger son of Yediyurappa would become the Deputy CM as part of the exit deal the BJP had made with the Lingayat strongman.

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However, there are no Deputy Chief Ministers in this cabinet, unlike in the previous Yediyurappa Ministry, which had three.

Reportedly, the Chief Minister was against having any deputies. The high command also shared his view as there were too many aspirants for the posts and it had the potential to create a further rift within the government and party in the days to come.