Siddaramaiah, Shivakumar Get to Pick Ten Ministers Each In Karnataka

The Congress high command has authorised Karnataka Chief Minister-elect Siddaramaiah and his deputy D K Shivakumar to pick 10 faces each as possible ministers.

Both the leaders will be sworn-in at a ceremony at Bengaluru at 12.30 pm today. Along with them 8 cabinet ministers too will be sworn in today at the Kanteerva stadium. The list was finalised after both leaders returned to New Delhi and held deliberations with the high command on the final list of ministers. In all, there would be around 29 to 30 ministers.

There would also be a grand show of opposition unity. Invitations have been extended to Tamil Nadu CM M K Stalin, his Bihar counterpart Nitish Kumar and Jharkhand's Hemant Soren. UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi, Bihar deputy CM Tejashwi Prasad Yadav will be present at the event. Bengal CM, Mamata Banerjee had expressed her inability to be present at the event, but deputed MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar to be at the event.

Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan, Odisha's Naveen Patnaik, Delhi's Arvind Kejriwal, K Chandrashekar Rao of Telangana and Andhra CM Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy have been excluded from the list.

Rajasthan CM, Ashok Gehlot will however be in attendance. Chhattisgarh's Bhupesh Baghel and Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu of Himachal Pradesh. Kannada actor Shivaraj Kumar are also expected at the event.

Others who have been invited include, CP chief Sharad Pawar, ex-Maharashtra CM Udhhav Thackeray, NC chief Farooq Abdullah, PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti, CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechuri and D Raja of CPI.