Karnataka Congress MLA resigns after DK Shivakumar announces first Cabinet expansion

Karnataka Congress MLA Yashwanthrayagouda Patil resigned from the Assembly on Monday, hours after the DK Shivakumar government announced its first expansion of the state Cabinet, The Indian Express reported.

Patil said that he had been “hurt” for being overlooked for a ministerial berth.

“I have been in politics for four decades,” the newspaper quoted Patil as saying. He added that he would decide whether he would quit the party or not.

Another Congress MLA Belur Gopalkrishna also said that he would resign from the Assembly as well as the chairperson of the Karnataka State Forest Industries Corporation.

“Only if you are children of chief ministers or ministers, will you have a chance [of becoming a minister]...,” The Indian Express quoted Gopalkrishna as saying.

Of the 20 MLAs inducted on Monday, 10 are first-time ministers, The Hindu reported.

Reacting to the developments, Shivakumar said that it was not possible to “accommodate everyone”.

“There are many MLAs,” The Indian Express quoted Shivakumar as saying. “...Earlier, I too missed out on a ministerial berth in the Siddaramaiah Cabinet. But didn’t I become a minister later?”

Shivakumar became the chief minister of Karnataka on June 3, replacing Siddaramaiah.

Shivakumar had served as deputy chief minister in the Siddaramaiah government since May 2023. Siddaramaiah was the longest-serving chief minister of Karnataka with a tenure of more than eight years across two terms. The 78-year-old...

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