Nagaraja got the excise (liquor) department, a political markdown as he expected housing – a portfolio he had held in the previous JD(S)-Congress regime. His political calculations probably went wrong after he switched sides from the Congress to BJP as he first lost his assembly polls, and now the exercise portfolio has come like a bolt from the blue. He has now demanded housing, and told the media he has nothing much to do in the excise department.
K Gopalaiah and JC Madhuswamy were cut up because they have landed new departments. Gopalaiah has been moved from food to horticulture, while Madhuswamy has been stripped of his pet minor irrigation department. He was keen on a department linked to agriculture. His law department has now been given to home minister Basavaraj Bommai as an additional portfolio.