Siddaramaiah Takes Oath as Karnataka CM, DK Shivakumar as His Deputy

GG News Bureau

Bengaluru, 20th May. Congress leader Siddaramaiah on Saturday officially took charge as new Chief Minister of Karnataka after taking oath and completing formalities at a huge event in Bengaluru where around 15,000 supporters had assembled.

DK Shivakumar, the Karnataka Congress president who had been embroiled in a dramatic tussle with Siddaramaiah for the top post for a week following their party’s resounding victory, took oath as the state’s sole Deputy Chief Minister.

At the swearing-in ceremony at Bengaluru’s Kanteerava Stadium, Karnataka Governor Thawarchand Gehlot administered the oath of office and secrecy to the elected legislators.

Siddaramaiah has been elected Chief Minister for the second time, following a five-year tenure from 2013 to 2018.

DK Shivakumar, 61, who previously served as Minister under Siddaramaiah, would also serve as the party’s Karnataka state president until Parliamentary elections next year.

Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi, who attended the ceremony with his sister, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, the party’s national general secretary, ascended the stage to underline his party’s commitment to the five promises it had made. A decision will be made during the first cabinet meeting, which he stated will take place in a few hours.

“Congress won the election only because it stood with the poor, the disadvantaged,” Rahul Gandhi said.

G Parameshwara, KH Muniyappa, KJ George, MB Patil, Satish Jarkiholi, Priyank Kharge, Ramalinga Reddy, and BZ Zameer Ahmed Khan, eight freshly elected MLAs with diversified representation, authorized by Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge this morning, also took the oath of office. Portfolios have not yet been issued to them.

Top Opposition leaders, including Tamil Nadu CM MK Stalin, CPI’s D Raja, Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar, PDP’s Mehbuba Mufti, Sharad Pawar from NCP, Jammu & Kashmir National Conference’s Farooq Abdullah, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, CPI(M)’s Sitaram Yechury, and actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan, were present in a symbolic display of Opposition unison against the BJP ahead of next year’s polls.

The absence of West Bengal CM Minister Mamata Banerjee, her Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal, Telangana’s K Chandrashekar Rao, and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav from the huge event was notable.