With 4 new ministers, Karnataka now has 6 in Union council

With Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday inducting four new faces from Karnataka into his ministry, and chemicals and fertilisers minister D V Sadanda Gowda resigning ahead of the reshuffle, the state's representation in the Union council of ministers now stands at six.

Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa congratulated the new ministers and called on them to work together, to further the state's progress across all sectors.

"Congratulations and best wishes to @rajeev_mp, @ShobhaBJP, @ANarayana_swamy and @bhagwantkhuba on being inducted into the Union council of ministers from Karnataka. Let us work to further state progress across all sectors under the leadership of PM @narendramodi Ji," Yediyurappa tweeted.

Udupi-Chikmagalur MP Shobha Karandlaje, A Narayanaswamy (Chitradurga), Bhagwanth Khuba (Bidar) and Rajya Sabha member from the state Rajeev Chandrasekhar, were on Wednesday inducted as ministers of state in the Modi government.

Earlier in the day, Sadanada Gowda, MP from Bengaluru North who held the chemicals and fertilisers portfolio, resigned as part of the rejig.

This leaves six ministers from Karnataka in the Union council of ministers, the other two being Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, who is member of the Rajya Sabha from the state, and Minister for Parliamentary Affairs, Coal and Mines Pralhad Joshi, who is the MP from Dharwad constituency.

Karandlaje, who was inducted on Wednesday, belongs to the politically influential Vokkaliga community in southern Karnataka, to which Sadananda Gowda also belongs.

Khuba's induction is being seen as a move to fill Lingayat representation in the ministry that had fallen vacant following the death of Suresh Angadi,who was serving as minister of state for railways., due to Covid-19 in September last year.

Narayanaswamy's induction seems to be a part of the party's strategy to further consolidate its "Dalit-Left vote base", while  Rajeev Chandrasekhar is a tech entrepreneur.

The BJP had won 25 out of 28 Lok Sabha seats in Karnataka in 2019.