Karnataka CM Swearing-In Ceremony: Here’s Who All Will Be Attending

The Congress on Thursday announced Siddaramaiah as the next chief minister of Karnataka and state party president D K Shivakumar as his deputy in the soon-to-formed government. The swearing-in ceremony is set to take place in Bengaluru at 12.30 PM on May 20.

Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge has extended the invitation to several chief ministers and party leaders and personally invited them to the event.

Earlier, Congress General Secretary KC Venugopal said that the national party has decided to invite leaders from like-minded parties to attend the ceremony.

According to latest reports, leaders like DMK's MK Stalin, JMM's Hemant Soren, JD-U's Nitish Kumar, RJD's Tejashvi Yadav, CPI-M's Sitaram Yechuri, Shiv Sena's Uddhav Thackeray, NCP's Sharad Pawar, NC's Farooq Abdullah and PDP's Mehbooba Mufti have been invited for the swearing-in ceremony.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar will also attend the swearing-in ceremony of the Congress government in Karnataka on May 20, Janata Dal (United) spokesperson Rajib Ranjan said.

Bihar deputy chief minister and RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav is also expected to attend the oath-taking ceremony in the southern state where the Congress has notched up a morale-boosting win over the BJP after suffering a series of electoral reverses in many big states.

The Karnataka Congress has also extended invitations to former Congress presidents Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi and party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

Besides, Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Bhupesh Baghel, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu will also be invited and they will also be present.

Reports also said Telangana Chief Minister and BRS leader K Chandrasekhar Rao, Odisha Chief Minister and BJD leader Naveen Patnaik, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and YSRCP leader Y S Jagan Mohan, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and BSP chief Mayawati have not been sent any invitations.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is likely to skip the event, as reprted by PTI. A representative of Banerjee will, however, be attending the programme, he added. "The CM is likely to skip the swearing-in-ceremony. She may be assigning someone to represent the state there," the bureaucrat told PTI.

Meanwhile, preparations are underway at Bengaluru's Sri Kanteerava Outdoor Stadium, where the swearing-in ceremony of the new Karnataka government is espected to be held.

The ceremony may be a show of strength for opposition parties as they work to join hands to take on the ruling BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

In the May 10 elections to the 224-member Karnataka Assembly, the Congress scored an emphatic victory by bagging 135 seats, while the ruling BJP and the former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda-led Janata Dal (Secular) secured 66 and 19 seats respectively.