Bengaluru, June 2: Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa on Tuesday appointed Ministers Ramesh Jarkiholi, K Gopalaiah as in-charge of Belagavi and Hassan districts respectively. A notification appointing water resources Minister Jarkiholi as in-charge to his home district of Belagavi and food and civil supplies Minister Gopalaiah to Hassan was issued on Tuesday.

Earlier, Industries Minister Jagadish Shettar held additional charge of Belagavi along with Dharwad district, while Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister J C Madhuswamy held the additional charge of Hassan along with Tumakuru district. Jarakiholi and Gopalaiah were among those left out of the list of district-in-charge ministers, when the Chief Minister made appointments in April. Karnataka Health Minister B Sriramulu Takes Part in Procession in Chitradurga, Watch Video to See How Social Distancing Norms Were Violated.

Both of them were among 10 legislators who defected from Congress and JD(S), subsequently won the December 2019 bypolls on BJP ticket and became ministers in February this year.

While Jarkiholi had defected from the Congress, Gopalaiah was from JD(S).

In April when Yediyurappa appointed district in-charge Ministers, there were reports that Jarkiholi was unhappy over him being left out and not being considered for Belagavi, which is his home district.

However, he subsequently clarified that there was no disgruntlement.

Interestingly, despite four Ministers from the district - Laxman Savadi, Shashikala Jolle, Ramesh Jarkiholi and Shrimanth Patil, the charge of Belagavi was then given to Shettar, a senior minister, who is from Dharwad to avoid any friction.

Gopalaiah's appointment to Hassan is also interesting, as it is the home turf of Deve Gowda family and JD(S), the party which he had represented in the past.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)