After days of deliberations — amid hectic lobbying for portfolios and attempts by Congress legislators to get inducted into the Cabinet — the D.K. Shivakumar-led Congress government finally managed to allocate ministries on the eve of the Monsoon Session to 19 newly inducted Ministers. Two senior Ministers, who had expressed unhappiness over earlier allocations, were also given different portfolios.

Senior Minister K.H. Muniyappa, who was earlier miffed at being continued as Food and Civil Supplies Minister after he had sought Social Welfare, has managed to prevail over the party leadership. Ramalinga Reddy, who was upset at not being given Bengaluru Development and instead given Water Resources Ministry, has been allocated Forests, Ecology and Environment. Besides, Health and Family Welfare Minister U.T. Khader has been given the additional responsibility of Minority Welfare, Haj and Wakf.

The Chief Minister has retained the Law and Parliamentary Affairs besides all other unallocated portfolios.

At a time when the State is facing challenges over deficit rainfall and the farming community is in distress, the Agriculture portfolio has been given to P.M. Narendraswamy, and the Major and Medium Irrigation portfolio has gone to N. Cheluvarayaswamy, both hailing from Mandya district. Puttaranga Shetty, from Chamarajanagar district, has been allocated Animal Husbandry and Sericulture.

The portfolio allocation from the Governor’s office came on Wednesday (August 12, 2026) evening as the Ministers huddled to strategise for the legislature session commencing on Thursday (August 13, 2026). The newly inducted Ministers with their portfolios will have their first full Cabinet meeting on Thursday (August 13, 2026) afternoon.

The allocation comes even as the government will be headed to the session without a woman Minister, though the Chief Minister has promised that the remaining one berth will be filled by a woman legislator. The portfolio allocation took Mr. Shivakumar nearly 10 days to finalise after multiple visits to Delhi, meetings with disgruntled legislators who missed out on berths, and pressure from the Ministers for portfolio.

Some of the Ministers have been continued in the same portfolios that they had held in the previous government under former Chief Minister Siddaramaiah. They include B.Z. Zameer Ahmed (Housing), Madhu Bangarappa (School Education and Literacy), Shivaraj Tangadagi (Backward Classes Welfare and Kannada and Culture), Santosh Lad (Labour and Employment), and S.S. Mallikarjun (Mines and Geology).

Some Ministers have got portfolios which they handled earlier. Basavaraj Rayaraddi has been given Higher Education, which he had held in Mr. Siddaramaiah’s first tenure as Chief Minister, and Laxman Savadi has been given Cooperation, which he managed earlier during his stint as Minister in the BJP government.

K.S. Basanthappa, a first-time legislator from Mayakonda, has been given Muzrai, Fisheries, Ports, and Inland Water. B. Nagendra, who has been in the eye of the storm over his cases connected with multi-crore embezzlement in the Karnataka State Valmiki Development Corporation and whose resignation the Opposition parties are demanding, has been allocated Planning and Statistics.

Food and Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs has been handed to Rizwan Arshad, Excise to K.M. Shivalinge Gowda, Minor Irrigation, Science and Technology to Ajay Singha, Scheduled Tribe Welfare to T. Raghumurthy, Sugar and Textiles to Rudrappa Lamani, Municipal Administration to H.C. Balakrishna, and Small Scale Industries and Public Enterprises to Vijayanand Kashappanavar.