The Congress party got the lion's share of the Karnataka Cabinet, along with the posts of Karnataka Deputy Chief Minister and the Vidhana Soudha Speaker, after discussions over the power-sharing deal with the JD(S) concluded in Bengaluru on Tuesday evening. Karnataka Congress president G Parameshwara will take oath as Deputy CM along with Chief Minister designate H D Kumaraswamy tomorrow. The post of the Speaker went to Congress MLA K R Ramesh Kumar, according to news agency ANI. Revealing the breakup of the cabinet, Congress' state in-charge K C Venugopal told ANI that the party has been alloted 22 out of the 34 ministries. The remaining 12 went to its ally JD(S). The allocation of the portfolios will be decided after the floor test, he added. This comes a day after Kumaraswamy met Congress president Rahul Gandhi and UPA chairman Sonia Gandhi in New Delhi. Both sides had agreed to “forget the past, look at the future and forge a long-term relationship”. The JD(S) leader drove to Rahul Gandhi’s Tughlaq Lane residence around 7 pm after his meeting with BSP chief Mayawati. Over coffee, Kumaraswamy told Rahul and Sonia Gandhi that the Congress-JD(S) pact should be a “long-term relationship”. Both leaders said the “coalition should run smoothly, with coordination”. Kumaraswamy assured the Congress leaders that he would provide good governance “without posing any problem to the Congress and its leaders”. He sought the blessings of Sonia who told him that he should discuss politics with Rahul and she could only give him her blessings. Kumaraswamy said both Rahul and Sonia had agreed to attend his swearing-in ceremony. Also there will be Mayawati, TDP chief and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury and Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
