He was the youngest cabinet minister in the Fourth B. S. Yeddyurappa ministry being only 46 years old at the time of taking charge, serving as the Minister of Medical education from Health and Family Welfare Department. He was again sworn-in as a minister in the Basavaraj Bommai ministry.
During the COVID-19 pandemic in Karnataka he was part of the COVID-19 Response team for Karnataka along with Chief Minister B. S. Yeddyurappa and Minister of Health and Family Welfare B. Sriramulu and few others. He was key participant of key policy making and rapid response to the pandemic.[6][7]
Operation Kamala, also known as Operation Lotus is a term coined in 2008, when India's former minister G. Janardhana Reddy in the state of Karnataka, used various strategies, including persuasion and financial incentives to secure support from legislators bypassing the anti-defection law, so as to take the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) past the majority number.[8][9][10][11][12] Operation Lotus refers to "poaching" or "bribing" of MLAs and MPs of other parties by the BJP, mainly of their rival the Indian National Congress party (INC), often to form government in states where they do not have the majority.[13]