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Bengaluru, May 29: Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah has allocated portfolios to ministers in his Cabinet, keeping the Finance department with himself while assigning the Irrigation and Bengaluru City Development departments to his deputy DK Shivakumar.

Siddaramaiah took the oath of office with Shivakumar and eight ministers on May 20. He subsequently expanded the Cabinet to its full strength by inducting 24 new ministers on Saturday after rounds of discussions with the Congress' central leadership.

G Parameshwara, who has previously handled the Home department, has once again been allocated the portfolio, MB Patil is the new Large and Medium Industries minister while KJ Geroge has been given the Energy department portfolio, the Karnataka government announced in a notification released late on Sunday.

Apart from the Finance department, the chief minister, who has presented 13 state budgets, has kept Cabinet Affairs, Department of Personnel and Administrative Reforms, Intelligence, Information, IT and BT, Infrastructure Development and all unallocated portfolios.

Shivakumar has got the all-important Major and Medium Irrigation and Bengaluru City Development, including the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), Bangalore Development Authority, Bangalore Water Supply and Sewerage Board, Bangalore Metropolitan Region Development Authority and the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation Limited.

Shivakumar, who hails from the neighbouring Ramanagara district, has been allocated the Bengaluru City Development department despite five MLAs from the city being ministers in the Cabinet. The portfolio is important keeping in mind the upcoming BBMP polls.

HK Patil has been allocated Law and Parliamentary Affairs, Legislation and Tourism while KH Muniyappa -- a former Union minister for whom this is the first stint in the state Cabinet -- is the new Food and Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs minister.

Ramalinga Reddy has been made the minister for Transport and Muzrai. Amid speculation that Reddy did not want the Transport department, Shivakumar visited his residence and held discussions on Sunday evening.

Dinesh Gundu Rao is the Health and Family Welfare minister while HC Mahadevappa has been given charge of Social Welfare. Public Works has been allocated to Satish Jarakiholi and Revenue to Krishna Byregowda.

Congress chief Mallikarjun Kharge's son Priyank Kharge is the new Rural Development and Panchayati Raj minister, Shivanand Patil has been given Textiles, Sugarcane Development and the Directorate of Sugar, Agricultural Marketing from the Cooperation department.

BZ Zameer Ahmed Khan will take charge of Housing, Wakf and Minority Welfare while Sharanabasappa Darshanapur has been allocated Small Scale Industries and Public Enterprises. Forest, Ecology and Environment has gone to Eshwar Khandre, Agriculture to N Cheluvarayaswamy, Mines and Geology, Horticulture to SS Mallikarjun, Municipal Administration and Haj to Rahim Khan and Labour to Santhosh S Lad.

Laxmi R Hebbalkar, the lone woman in the Cabinet, will take charge of the Women and Child Development and the Disabled and Senior Citizens Empowerment portfolios and Sharanaprakash Rudrappa Patil has been allocated the Medical Education and Skill Development portfolio.

Other ministers and their departments include RB Timmapur (Excise), K Venkatesh (Animal Husbandry and Sericulture), Shivaraj Tangadagi (Backward Class, Kannada and Culture), D Sudhakar (Planning and Statistics), B Nagendra (Youth Services, Sports and ST Welfare), KN Rajanna (Co-operation), Suresha BS (Urban Development and Town Planning) and Mankal Vaidya (Fisheries and Ports, Inland Transport).

Madhu Bangarappa will take over the Primary and Secondary Education portfolio, MC Sudhakar will take charge of Higher Education and NS Boseraju has been allocated Minor Irrigation, Science and Technology.

There was some disgruntlement within the Congress after the Cabinet expansion with several MLAs, who held aspirations of becoming ministers but missed out, having to be pacified by party leaders.

In the May 10 elections to the 224-member assembly, the Congress bagged 135 seats while the BJP and former prime minister HD Deve Gowda-led Janata Dal (Secular) secured 66 and 19, respectively.

Bengaluru, June 2: The five poll promises that Congress had made in the run-up to the Karnataka assembly elections were approved today at a keenly-watched Cabinet meeting.

Before the meeting, Chief Minister Siddaramaiah had announced that a decision will be taken on announcement regarding the implementation of five guarantee schemes promised during polls.

The Cabinet has decided to implement the five guarantees without any discrimination of caste or religion, Siddaramaiah announced after the meeting.

The ruling Congress government was under pressure to deliver on the five guarantees.

The poll promises were:

•    10 kg free rice to every individual of BPL family under Anna Bhagya scheme
•    Rs 2,000 per month allowance to the woman head of family under Gruha Laxmi scheme
•    Rs 3,000 allowance for unemployed graduates and Rs 1,500 for unemployed diploma holders for two years under Yuva Nidhi scheme
•    free bus travel for women
•    200 units of free electricity under Gruha Jyothi scheme.

The guarantee schemes will be implemented in a phased manner, it was announced post the meeting.

Gruha Lakshmi, Rs 2,000 monthly aid for woman head of family, will be launched on August 15, Siddaramaiah announced.

Under Anna Bhagya, 10 kg food grains will be given free to all in BPL households, Antyodaya card holders from July 1.

Under 'Shakti', women can travel for free in public transport buses other than AC, luxury buses in Karnataka from June 11.

The CM announced that implementation of 'Gruha Jyoti' (200 units of free electricity) will begin from July 1.  "200 units of electricity will be free ... Consumers who haven't paid their bills till July will have to pay," said Siddaramaiah.

Bengaluru, June 6: Following the poor show in the Karnataka Assembly polls, JD(S) leader H D Kumaraswamy on Tuesday said there are plans to restructure the party in a "big way". The former chief minister said that JD(S) National President and former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda has advised that a high-level committee be constituted with representation from all communities for strengthening the party.

"In a big way we want to give responsibilities this time, community wise, as per the directions of our national president, and extract work from them in order to build trust among the people and to strengthen the party. So, there are plans to bring in big changes and restructure the party," Kumaraswamy said.

Speaking to reporters here, he said, "We have started discussions with leaders from all 30 districts. We discuss and decide on restructuring." JD(S) emerged a distant third in the Assembly polls last month by securing just 19 of the total 224 seats. Following this, party state president C M Ibrahim and youth wing chief Nikhil Kumaraswamy have resigned taking moral responsibility.

Their resignations are yet to be accepted. JD(S) chief Deve Gowda has called a meeting of party leaders to discuss the party's performance in the recently held Assembly polls as well as about organising, strengthening the party and restructuring of taluk and district units wherever necessary ahead of the upcoming zilla, taluk and corporation polls, in addition to making preparations for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

Stating that the JD(S) will wait and watch whether the Congress government will fulfil the irrigation projects in the state and its poll guarantees as promised before the elections, Kumaraswamy said, "If they take steps to implement them as promised, we will support. If not, we will fulfill the responsibility as an opposition by creating awareness among the people."

He also hit out at Chief Minister Siddaramaiah for accusing the opposition of trying to incite people by spreading false information regarding the guarantee schemes.

"Siddaramaiah, it is you who have misled the people. You have now attached conditions for the implementation of guarantees, without having made any reference to them ahead of elections." Kumaraswmy urged the Siddaramaiah government to walk the talk and fulfill the guarantees as promised to the people before the polls.

"Their (Congress govt) guarantees seem to have become duplicate. We will see how many beneficiaries will get the advantage of them in the next few days... Let's give some time to the new government, we will discuss on the floor of the Assembly," he added.