Bengaluru, May 20: Congress Legislature Party (CLP) chief Siddaramaiah and state party president D K Shivakumar took oaths as Karnataka Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister respectively on Saturday, days after political drama over the grand old party's CM pick.
The swearing-in ceremony of the two veteran leaders was attended by Congress top brass, as well as by multiple Opposition leaders, amid the grand old party's push to forge Opposition unity ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, who attended the event along with his sister and the party's national general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, took the stage to reiterate his party would fulfil the five guarantees it had promised. A decision will be taken in the very first cabinet meeting, which he said would be held in a few hours.
Top Opposition leaders, including Tamil Nadu Chief Minister 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 in attendance in a symbolic display of Opposition unity against the BJP ahead of next year's general elections.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, her Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal, Telangana's K Chandrashekar Rao, and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav were conspicuous by their absence from the mega event.
Mere days ago, the Congress swept Karnataka, bagging 135 seats in the state and reducing the BJP to a tally of 66.
Details awaited.
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