The Congress government has been formed in Karnataka on Saturday. Siddaramaiah took oath as Chief Minister for the second time. Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot administered him the oath of office at 12.30 pm.
After him, DK Shivakumar took oath as the sole deputy CM.
In Karnataka Dr G Parameshwara, KH Muniyappa, KJ George and MB Patil were made cabinet ministers. Satish Jarkiholi, Priyank Kharge (son of Mallikarjun Kharge), Ramalinga Reddy and Zameer Ahmed Khan took oath as Ministers of State cabinet.
On this occasion, Rahul Gandhi said, ‘ We had made 5 promises to you. Karnataka government’s first cabinet meeting will be held in 1-2 hours. In that, these 5 promises will become law. I said that we do not make false promises. We do what we say. The first cabinet meeting will be held at 4 pm. In this, 8 ministers will be included along with CM Deputy CM”.
In the first cabinet, attention has been given to South Karnataka instead of North Karnataka.
There are 5 ministers from South Karnataka, while only 3 from North. At the same time, maximum 3 ministers out of 8 are from SC.
Congress has done social engineering by making ministers from the rest of the community as well.
While CM Kuruba, Deputy CM DK Shivakumar is from Vokkaliga community. Besides these, Dr G Parameshwara, KH Muniyappa, Priyank Kharge are from SC. Satish Jarkiholi belongs to ST, MB Patil belongs to Lingayat community, KG George Christian, Zameer Ahmed Khan belongs to Muslim and Ramalinga Reddy Reddy community.
A total of 34 ministers are to be inducted in the Karnataka cabinet. So far only 8 have been included.
The ministers who took oath along with CM Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar are in direct touch with Congress President Kharge and the high command.
This is the reason why there was no problem in making them minister.
The MLAs of Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar faction, who are to be made ministers, do not have direct connections with the high command, so there will be a discussion on their inclusion in the cabinet. For this CM and Deputy CM can go to Delhi again this evening itself.
Leaders of nine opposition parties were present at the swearing-in. These include Mehbooba Mufti (PDP), Nitish Kumar (JDU), Tejashwi Yadav (RJD), D Raja and Sitaram Yechury (Left), MK Stalin (DMK), Sharad Pawar (NCP), Farooq Abdullah (National Conference), Kamal Haasan (Makkal Needhi Maiam).
Apart from these, Congress’ Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Kamal Nath and Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel were also present. However, Sonia Gandhi was not present.
Those not invited by the Karnataka Congress for the oath ceremony include the BJP, Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik’s Biju Janata Dal (BJD), Telangana CM K Chandrasekhar Rao’s Bharat Rashtra Samithi. (BRS), Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jaganmohan Reddy’s party (YSR Congress), Kerala CM P Vijayan.
In 2018, leaders of opposition parties also participated in the swearing-in of the Congress-JDS coalition government.
Then HD Kumaraswamy of JDS was made the Chief Minister. The ceremony was attended by Samajwadi Party’s Akhilesh Yadav, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav, CPI(M’s) Sitaram Yechury, NCP’s Sharad Pawar, RLD’s Ajit Singh.
On 13 May, the results of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly elections came. Congress won 135 out of 224 seats, BJP 66 and JDS 19 seats. After the results came, the churning continued for five days in the Congress regarding the post of CM.
There was a claim between Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar. The high command chose Siddaramaiah. Sonia Gandhi convinced DK for Deputy CM.
In the counting of votes held last Saturday, out of 224 seats in Karnataka, Congress got 135, BJP 66, Janata Dal-S 19 and others 4 seats.
After getting the majority, the supporters of Karnataka Congress President DK Shivakumar wanted to make him the Chief Minister. But, the choice of the Congress was Siddaramaiah.
After five days of persuasion and Sonia Gandhi’s intervention, DK Shivakumar, adamant on the post of Karnataka CM, finally agreed.
It was decided that Siddaramaiah would be the CM of Karnataka and DK Shivakumar would be the Deputy CM.
Siddaramaiah was also elected as the leader of the Legislature Party in the Legislature Party meeting held in Bengaluru on Thursday night.
DK Shivkumar will become CM after Lok Sabha elections, has agreed on 50-50 formula. Siddaramaiah will be the CM for the first two and a half years and DK for the next two and a half years.
Means DK will become the Chief Minister in 2025 after the Lok Sabha elections. However, who will be the Congress state president of Karnataka then, its name is yet to be decided.
