Congress leader Siddaramaiah was on Saturday sworn in as the Chief Minister of Karnataka for the second time after the party’s landslide victory in the assembly elections. This is the same stadium where in 2013, Siddaramaiah took oath as the Chief Minister for the first time. DK Shivakumar took oath as the sole Deputy Chief Minister of Karnataka. Top leaders of the Congress party, including members of the Gandhi family – Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi, the party’s national president Mallikarjun Kharge were present on the occasion. Eight Congress MLAs took oath as ministers in the Karnataka cabinet during the swearing-in ceremony in Bengaluru on Saturday. Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot administered the oath of office and secrecy to the legislators at the swearing-in ceremony held at the packed Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru. This is the same stadium where in 2013, Siddaramaiah took oath as the Chief Minister for the first time. The eight MLAs include Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s son Priyank Kharge, party MLAs G Parameshwara and MB Patil. Other MLAs who took oath include KH Muniyappa, KJ George, Satish Jarkiholi, Ramalinga Reddy and BZ Zameer Ahmed Khan.
Top leaders of the Congress party, including members of the Gandhi family – Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi, the party’s national president Mallikarjun Kharge were present on the occasion. Chief Ministers of Congress ruled states including Himachal CM Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu, Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot and Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel attended the event. The party had also sent invitations to several opposition parties and their leaders. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his deputy Tejashwi Yadav, former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, Farooq Abdullah were also present during the swearing-in ceremony.
Bangalore | Dr G Parameshwara, KH Muniappa, KJ George and MB Patil took oath as cabinet ministers in the newly-elected Karnataka government. pic.twitter.com/vGHhl0louL– ANI (@ANI) May 20, 2023
Other opposition leaders present include Sharad Pawar, Kamal Haasan. Actor and Makkal Needhi Maiam chief Kamal Haasan attends the swearing-in ceremony of the newly-elected Karnataka government in Bengaluru. Before the ceremony, Rahul Gandhi, Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah were seen holding each other’s hands in the air in a show of strength and unity.
Congress supporters lined up in anticipation and celebration outside Siddaramaiah’s residence since early morning. Posters with pictures of the Gandhi family, Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah were put up in Bengaluru today. A leader with strong grassroots connect, Siddaramaiah has been associated with the formulation of the state budget for many years and keeps an eye on detail.
Congress MLAs Priyank Kharge, G Parameshwara and DK Suresh – party MP and brother of deputy-CM candidate DK Shivakumar – were present at the stadium. The Congress leadership, which had to choose between him and state Congress chief DK Shivakumar for the chief minister’s post following its emphatic victory in the assembly polls earlier this month, clearly felt that the former chief minister’s vast administrative experience would come in handy in this election. . Implementing the promises of the manifesto considering their financial implications.
The CLP meeting was held at the party office in Bengaluru after Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar returned from the national capital after days of deliberations for the chief minister’s post. Shivakumar moved a resolution to elect Siddaramaiah as the new CLP leader. All the members unanimously supported it.
Siddaramaiah was unanimously elected as the leader of the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) in Karnataka on Thursday. Siddaramaiah met Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot on Thursday evening and staked claim to form the government. Karnataka has complex caste equations and a history of voting out incumbent governments. Only three chief ministers before Siddaramaiah – S Nijalingappa (1962 and 1967, three terms including 1956); D Devaraj Urs (1972 and 1978) and RK Hegde (1983 and 1985) were chief ministers twice.
Siddaramaiah, 74, launched several welfare schemes during his five-year tenure as chief minister from 2013 and this helped the Congress campaign during the assembly polls with several people-oriented promises. During his long political career, Siddaramaiah lost elections but bounced back because of his determination and his quest for “social justice”.
Siddaramaiah became the Finance Minister in the cabinet of HD Deve Gowda, the then Chief Minister of Karnataka. He won from Chamundeshwari in the by-election. When assembly constituencies were reorganized in 2008, he entered the assembly from Varuna and was appointed Leader of the Opposition. In the results declared on 13 May, the Congress won 135 seats in the 224-member Karnataka Assembly, pushing the BJP to 66 seats.