Despite his Janata Dal-Secular finishing a poor third in the electoral battlefield, the 58-year-old Vokkaliga leader wore the crown.
'There are several people connected to this (sexual abuse cases), I don't want to take anyone's names. Kumaraswamy has said that those who are involved in this matter, action should be taken against all of them, and the affected women should get justice and compensation'
The portfolios were cleared by Congress president Rahul Gandhi as the exercise had turned out to be tricky for the party state leaders.
"The government should handle it delicately and follow what was done in Hyderabad," former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy said.
He also asserted that within 24 hours of taking oath, he would prove the majority on the floor of the House.
Seemingly expressing his displeasure against ministers demanding three more deputy chief minister posts in Karnataka, state Congress president D K Shivakumar on Tuesday said the party would respond to them appropriately.
Kumaraswamy rejected a charge by the saffron party that he was trying to poach their lawmakers.
He also said the expansion of his cabinet would take place once state Congress leaders get an approval from their high command.
As the political turmoil lingered on with the ruling coalition making frenetic efforts to win back rebels who have pushed it to the brink of collapse, assembly Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar on Monday announced the confidence motion sought to be moved by Kumaraswamy would be taken up at 11 am on July 18.
Kumaraswamy found himself in a raging controversy on Tuesday after a video of his telephonic instruction to "shoot mercilessly" those who had killed a Janata Dal-Secular worker in the party's stronghold of Mandya district on Monday went viral.
The chief minister also said that the Janata Dal-Secular-Congress coalition government is secure under the leadership of senior Congress leader and former chief minister Siddaramaiah.
Sources said while the Janata Dal-Secular will have nine new ministers, the Congress will have nearly 12 of its legislators inducted into the cabinet. Lone Bahujan Samaj Party MLA N Mahesh will also be a part of the cabinet expansion and will be given a key portfolio.
"...I would appeal to him (Prajwal Revanna) to come back to Karnataka and face this investigation... If you have not done anything then why are you afraid, why did you run away? You have to face this situation," Kumaraswamy told a reporter in Bengaluru.
The Congress said that a chief minister "has to be always happy".
Janata Dal-Secular chief and former Karnataka chief minister H D Kumaraswamy had allegedly demanded a bribe of Rs 40 crore to nominate an MLC from the party, audio clips released by an MLC aspirant have revealed.
The Karnataka high court on Tuesday refused to grant a stay on the proceedings initiated against former chief minister H D Kumaraswamy and his wife by a lower court on a private complaint filed against them. Justice K N Keshavanarayan rejected the applications filed by Kumaraswamy and his wife Anita for staying the proceedings before the Lokayukta special court. The Lokayukta court had on August 8 issued summons to Kumaraswamy and his wife, asking them to appear before it.
Kumaraswamy said he would remain the CM until he enjoyed the 'confidence' of the Congress MLAs and till the time God has written it in his fate.
The counting of votes for the bypolls to 46 assembly seats in 13 states and in the Lok Sabha segments of Nanded in Maharashtra and Wayanad in Kerala, a crucial electoral exercise since the parliamentary polls in April-May, will begin at 8 am on Saturday.
Bypolls will be held on Wednesday in 31 assembly seats spread across 10 states and Kerala's Wayanad Lok Sabha constituency, from where Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra is making her electoral debut. Though these bye-elections are not going to have any bearing on the governments, they are seen as a big test for the Congress and the INDIA bloc which failed to put up a united show in the recent Haryana assembly polls. Most of these seats fell vacant after the sitting MLAs contested the Lok Sabha elections and won while in some constituencies, the bypolls are being held due to death of the representatives. The Wayanad seat was vacated by Rahul Gandhi, who also won from the Rae Bareli parliamentary constituency which he kept. Voting will be held in seven seats in Rajasthan, six in West Bengal, five in Assam, four seats in Bihar, three in Karnataka, two seats in Madhya Pradesh, and one seat each in Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Kerala and Meghalaya. Votes will be counted on November 23.
The embattled Janata Dal-Secular leader also said he was ready for everything and that he was not here to cling to power.
Terming the charges against him a "BJP conspiracy", Siddaramaiah said he would wage a legal fight.
"I'm an emotional person, but it is not my helplessness. Did I shed tears at a government programme? As chief minister I have worked towards implementing programmes strongly," he said.
He asked if the prime minister's convoy was blocked would anyone accept it.
Janata Dal-Secular's H D Kumaraswamy on Wednesday took the oath of office at a mega-gathering, attended by Congress president Rahul Gandhi, his mother Sonia and strong regional leaders like Mamata Banerjee, Mayawati and Sharad Pawar. The event was planned in such a way that it would serve as a giant display of opposition unity against the Bharatiya Janata Party. Is the BJP watching?
Shiv Sena-Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray leader Priyanka Chaturvedi on Wednesday took potshots at the rival Shiv Sena over its minister not finding a place in the reconstituted NITI Aayog.
Kumaraswamy predicted that the political instability would continue in the state.
Some explicit video clips allegedly involving Prajwal had started making the rounds in Hassan in recent days.
The case relates to protests near the I-T office in Bengaluru by the leaders including the then chief minister H D Kumaraswamy against the income tax raids at the residence of Congress and JD-S leaders.
He had the support of 138 legislators in the 224-member House.
The Janata Dal-Secular leader also said that he may move the confidence of motion on May 24.
As many as six who hold law degrees include cabinet ministers Nitin Gadkari, J P Nadda, Piyush Goyal, Sarbananda Sonowal, Bhupender Yadav and Kiren Rijiju.
The new CM said the coalition government will work for the people and was not here to fulfil personal interests.
The Janata Dal-Secular on Thursday petitioned Karnataka Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot, seeking his intervention recommending a CBI probe into the sexual abuse charges against Hassan MP Prajwal Revanna.
The speaker told Kumaraswamy that "this (SIT) should not lead to a witch-hunt. The probe should be only to establish the truth."
The Janata Dal-Secular leader, who was sworn-in Karnataka chief minister last week after the Congress extended unconditional support to his party, said he is ready with the guidelines on farm loan waiver, details of which will be disclosed on Wednesday.
Kumaraswamy met representatives of farmers groups and progressive peasants to discuss the problems faced by them.
Kumaraswamy made the stunning claim that the BJP offered the MLAs of his party Rs 100 crore and ministerial berths.
He said this in response to a query during a press interaction held at his residence in New Delhi on what Germany was willing to do bring over three-year-old Ariha back and whether her issue will be raised at the "highest level".
Sitharaman and Karnataka minister Sa Ra Mahesh were locked in an exchange of words over her itinerary.
In the much expected exercise that takes the state ministry's strength to the maximum permissible limit of 34, Kumaraswamy inducted three ministers from his party Janata Dal (Secular) and two from the Bharatiya Janata Party.
