Lion’s share for Congress in Karnataka Cabinet

​Bengaluru: Karnataka will have its second chief minister in a week as Janata Dal (S) chief HD Kumaraswamy takes oath on Wednesday along with his deputy, Congress' G Parameshwara.

There was no word on whether there would be a second deputy for Kumaraswamy - a Congress plan on which the two parties did not appear to be on the same page.

At a meeting on Tuesday evening, the two parties also finalised the shape of the Cabinet. Of the state's 34 ministries, 22 would go to the Congress and 12, including the post of the Chief Minister, will be with the JD(S), said Parameshwara, who also heads the state unit of the Congress.

The berths will be decided after floor test, which will be held on Thursday, said KK Venugopal, one of the key Congress leaders from Karnataka.

The post of the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker will be evenly divided - the Speaker will be from the Congress, his deputy will be from the Janata Dal (S). The Congress has named Ramesh Kumar for the job, the JD(S) is yet to name its candidate.

The crucial meeting was held after a green signal from Congress chief Rahul Gandhi, whom Kumaraswamy met in Delhi on Monday. The agenda also included the matter of deputies as well as the power-sharing formula.

Gandhi, however, left the decisions on these issues to the state leaders, said Venugopal, who was present at the meeting.

The Congress and the JD(S) had announced a last-minute tie-up during the counting of votes to keep the BJP out of power in the state. Though together, the two parties could command majority in the Assembly, the BJP, as the single largest party, was invited to form the government by Governor Vajubhai Vala.

BS Yeddyurappa, who took oath on Thursday after a hectic appeal by the Congress and a midnight hearing in the Supreme Court, stepped down minutes before Saturday's trust vote, which many expected him to lose.