Bangalore : Senior Congress leader Siddaramaiah has been sworn in as Chief Minister of Karnataka for the second term, along with state Congress President D K Shivakumar as Deputy Chief Minister, and eight legislators as Ministers this afternoon. The swearing in ceremony took place exactly a week after the party swept the Assembly polls in Karnataka. Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar were in Delhi till late Friday night to discuss the cabinet structure with party’s high command. Siddaramaiah, who is the leader of Congress Legislature Party, had earlier written to Karnataka Governor requesting him to administer the oath to eight MLAs as Cabinet Ministers.
The eight ministers inducted in Siddaramaiah’s cabinet are G Parameshwara (SC), K H Muniyappa (SC), K J George (Minority-Christian), M B Patil (Lingayat), Satish Jarkiholi (ST-Valmiki), Priyank Kharge (SC and AICC President M Mallikarjun Kharge’s son), Ramalinga Reddy (Reddy), and B Z Zameer Ahmed Khan (Minority-Muslim).
Several leaders of opposition parties and senior Congress leaders including Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi and Kamal Nath were present during the occasion. Other prominent leaders present on the occasion were Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Tamil Nadu CM M K Stalin, Nationalist Congress Party president Sharad Pawar, Chhattisgarh CM Bhupesh Baghel, Himachal Pradesh Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot and former Jammu & Kashmir CM Farooq Abdullah.
Congress has won 135 seats in the 224-seat Karnataka assembly while the BJP won only 66 seats.
Bureau Report
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