Anant Kumar Hegde from Uttar Kannada and Ramesh Jigajinagi from Bijapur (SC) from the NDA-1 government were dropped from the recently formed government
Bengaluru: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday (May 30) inducted two new ministers from Karnataka, after retaining only one of the three from the previous government.
While Suresh Angadi from Belagavi was sworn in as a minister of state at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi, DV Sadananada Gowda from Bangalore North and Pralhad Joshi from Dharwad took oath as Cabinet ministers.
However, Anant Kumar Hegde from Uttar Kannada and Ramesh Jigajinagi from Bijapur (SC) from the NDA-1 government were dropped from Modi’s ministry.
Gowda belongs to the politically-dominant Vokkaliga community. Joshi hails is from the Brahmin community while Suresh Angadi is a Lingayat, which is another powerful community in the state.
In the previous NDA government, Gowda held three portfolios during his first five-year term, railways from May-November 2014, law and justice from November-July 2016 and statistics and programme implementation since July 2016 during the Cabinet reshuffle.
Hegde, the four-time MP, was made a minister in November 2017, while Jigajinagi was made a minister in July 2016, after replacing minister of state GM Siddeshwar from Davanagere.
In NDA-1, the southern state had three ministers, including HN Ananth Kumar, who died in November 2018 due to cancer.
In the 28 Lok Sabha constituencies in Karnataka, the BJP won 25. Mandya's independent candidate Sumalatha Ambareesh won with the BJP’s support. The ruling coalition government (Congress-JDS) just won two seats.
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