Bengaluru, May 20 (IANS) At least 27 leaders from 17 opposition parties on Saturday attended new Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah’s swearing-in ceremony in Bengaluru, which included some top names like Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar among others.
On Saturday, besides Siddaramaiah, Karnataka Congress chief D.K. Shivakumar took oath as the only Deputy Chief Minister of the southern state along with eight cabinet ministers.
Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chief Rahul Gandhi along with his sister and party general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel and Himachal Pradesh CM Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu also attended the programme.
Kharge had invited 19 like-minded opposition parties for the swearing-in ceremony in Bengaluru.
The Congress said that 27 leaders from 17 opposition parties attended the swearing-in ceremony on Saturday.
The event was also attended by Janata Dal-United leader Lalan Singh.
Rashtriya Janata Dal leader and Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejashwi Yadav was also in attendance at the oath ceremony.
Besides Pawar, three leaders from the Nationalist Congress Party were also present.
The programme was also attended by Shiv Sena (Uddhav Thackeray) faction leaders Priyanka Chaturvedi and Anil Desai, while Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Jayant Chaudhary also present.
In 2018, Jayant Chaudhary’s father, Ajit Chaudhary, also attended the swearing in ceremony of the Congress-JD-S government in the southern state.
From Jammu and Lashmir, PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti along with National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah with two of his party leaders attended the programme in Bengaluru.
Jharkhand Chief Minister and JMM leader Hemant Soren, who is also an alliance partner with the Congress in the mineral-rich state, was in attendance.
Veteran CPI leader. D Raja, CPI (ML) leader Dipankar Bhattacharya, and CPI-M leader Sitaram Yechury also attended the programme.
Southern superstar Kamal Hasan, who had earlier joined Rahul Gandhi’s Bharat Jodo Yatra in Delhi last year, attended the swearing-in ceremony here.
West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee sent her party leader Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar for the path ceremony.
IUML’s Abdul Samad Samdani, RSP’s NK Premchandran, VCK’s Thol Thirumalavan also attended the programme.
The Congress, ahead of the crucial 2024 Lok Sabha elections, has started the process of bringing like-minded opposition parties together.
The Congress won 135 seats in the Assembly polls, while the BJP was reduced to 66 and the JD-S could only manage to win 19 in the May 10 elections in Karnataka.
–IANS
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