Two berths, zero women: Karnataka's cabinet puzzle becomes a Shivakumar vs Siddaramaiah flashpoint

Bengaluru: Karnataka's 33-member cabinet has two ministerial berths lying vacant — and not a single one of the existing posts is held by a woman. That gap has now become the latest front in the long-running tussle between Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar and his predecessor Siddaramaiah, with rival camps reportedly pushing competing candidates for the two vacancies.
The demand for women's representation had been building for months. It sharpened after Soumya Reddy stepped down as Karnataka Pradesh Mahila Congress president, a resignation that drew fresh attention to the absence of women in the council of ministers.
According to the state unit's own account, the two camps are backing different names for the same two seats, turning what began as a question of gender representation into a test of influence, caste arithmetic and internal party balance. Neither the Chief Minister's office nor the Siddaramaiah camp has publicly confirmed its preferred candidates.
The Congress government has been on the defensive over the issue. Women's groups and party leaders argue that a ministry of 33 with no woman in it sits awkwardly with the party's national pitch on representation.
What happens next rests on Shivakumar, who must reconcile the claims of rival factions before the next expansion of the council of ministers. The two vacancies are not new; what is new is the pressure to fill at least one with a woman. Till that happens, the row is likely to keep resurfacing — in party meetings, in the legislature and on the campaign trail.
The vacancies have persisted for months, and the prolonged absence of women has put the Congress government on the defensive in the legislature as well. Party leaders acknowledge that a ministry with no woman member sits awkwardly with the party's national pitch on representation, and that the issue is unlikely to fade until at least one berth is filled.