Along with Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar, eight Congress MLAs were sworn in as ministers of the state Cabinet during the oath-taking ceremony in Bengaluru held at Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru on Saturday. Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot administered the oath of office and secrecy to the MLAs at the swearing-in ceremony.
The eight MLAs include Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge’s son Priyank Kharge, party’s MLAs G Parameshwara, MB Patil, KH Muniyappa, KJ George, Satish Jarkiholi, Ramalinga Reddy and BZ Zameer Ahmed Khan.
Veteran Congress leader Siddaramaiah was sworn in as the CM of the state for the second time, after the party’s thumping victory in the Assembly elections held on May 10. The Congress won 135 seats in the 224-member Assembly. The venue of his oath-taking is the same as where the prominent Kuruba community leader had taken oath in 2013 when he became CM for the first time.
Siddaramaiah’s sole deputy DK Shivakumar, Karnataka Congress Committee president, also took oath today.
The swearing-in ceremony was held in attendance of Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi, Kharge, Chief Ministers of the Congress-ruled states including Himachal CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot, and Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel.
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, as well as other opposition leaders Sharad Pawar and actor and Makkal Needhi Maiam chief Kamal Haasan attended the swearing-in ceremony of the newly-elected Karnataka Government in Bengaluru.
Ahead of the ceremony, Rahul Gandhi, Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah were seen all smiles and holding each other’s hands in the air as a show of strength and unity.
