DK Shivakumar set to be sworn in as Karnataka chief minister with 13 ministers today

COngress leader DK Shivakumar testament occupy swearing as mysore’s young chief minister on Wednesday with around 13 other ministers, senior party leaders in Delhi indicated on Tuesday.The leaders also suggested there was a slim chance of a deputy chief minister being appointed on Wednesday. The issue, officials indicated, might also be considered at a later stage when the cabinet is expanded and after the biennial Rajya Sabha elections in the state.The ministers are likely to include G Parameshwara, KJ George, Yathindra Siddaramaiah, Priyank Kharge, MB Patil, Satish Jarkiholi, Krishna Byre Gowda, Ramalinga Reddy, UT Khader and Eshwar Khandre, said party leaders aware of the matter.Another set of party leaders said Roopakala Shashidhar and former Rajya Sabha member BK Hariprasad might also be inducted as ministers. A third set said that KH Muniyappa, Dinesh Gundu Rao and Byrati Suresh were also in the running.Parameshwara, the state home minister and a key Dalit face, is likely to be deputy chief minister if it is announced tomorrow, people familiar with the matter said.Speaking to reporters after arriving in Bengaluru on Tuesday night, Shivakumar said the final list of ministers would be sent by the party high command by 10 am on Wednesday or later in the afternoon.With less than 24 hours left for the swearing-in, top Congress leaders including party president Mallikarjun Kharge, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, general secretaries KC Venugopal and Randeep Surjewala worked to finalise the list of ministers till late on Tuesday.A senior leader told HT that the Shivakumar government would be expanded after a month to induct more ministers, as the discussions on all berths could not be completed. Another senior leader said party leaders had discussed the issue of appointing a deputy CM to maintain a balance between the Shivakumar camp and the Siddaramaiah lobby, but a final decision has been deferred.HT has learnt that Shivakumar and some other leaders were not keen to have a deputy CM immediately. “Shivakumar was appointed as the deputy CM when Siddaramaiah became CM in 2023 because the former was also a contender for the top post. A similar situation does not arise now,” said a second Congress leader.Earlier, the Congress president’s son Priyank (another Dalit candidate) and Siddaramaiah’s son Yathindra were seen as key contenders for the post.Ahead of the reshuffle, the Congress president inducted Siddaramaiah as a member of the party’s Working Committee (CWC), the highest executive body of the organisation.Shivakumar, elected leader of the Congress Legislature Party on May 30, is scheduled to take oath at 4.05pm at Lok Bhavan along with the first batch of ministers.(With inputs from Arun Dev in Bengaluru)