From left to right: Tejashwi Yadav, Sonia Gandhi, Mayawati, Mamata Banerjee, Rahul Gandhi, Chandrababu Naidu, H D Kumaraswamy. (Source: Congress/Twitter)
H D Kumaraswamy took oath as Karnataka’s 24th Chief Minister in presence of leaders from at least 10 parties at a grand show of Opposition unity outside the Vidhana Soudha in Bengaluru on Wednesday. JD(S) state president Kumaraswamy and Congress state president G Parameshwara were administered the oath of office and secrecy as chief minister and deputy chief minister respectively by Governor Vajubhai Vala at a ceremony which lasted for less than 15 minutes.
Despite the skies opening up ahead of the swearing-in ceremony, it failed to dampen the mood among JD(S) and Congress supporters as a large number of them streamed in to catch a glimpse of their leaders.
The coming together of opposition parties, most of them regional, is being viewed as the beginning of an anti-BJP platform ahead of the Lok Sabha polls in 2019.
The prominent Opposition faces who were in attendance were Congress president Rahul Gandhi, UPA chairman Sonia Gandhi, TMC leader and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, TDP chief and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, Delhi Chief Minister and AAP chief Arvind Kejriwal, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, BSP supremo Mayawati, CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury, RJD leader Tejashwi Yadav, NCP leader Sharad Pawar, CPI MP D Raja, INLD chief Ajit Singh among others. Former prime minister and JD(S) national president Deve Gowda was also among those on stage.
The BJP boycotted the ceremony and observed a “Black Day” during which it held statewide protests against the new coalition government, which it called “unholy”.
Addressing a press conference after taking the oath, Kumaraswamy said leaders cutting across party lines came together to send a message to the nation that they are all together. “Leaders who came from all over country wanted to give a message to the nation that we are one and in 2019 there will be a major change in political situation. They were not here to protect this govt, this govt will be protected by local Congress leaders and our leaders,” he said.
He added that the Congress-JD(S) coalition government will be run better than any one-party administration. “This coalition government (Congress-JD(S)) will run better than any one-party government and we will concentrate on working for the public. We have decided to work together for the betterment of the state,” he said.
Meanwhile, the first test awaiting the JD(S)-Congress alliance will be on the floor of the Karnataka Assembly. Kumaraswamy will face a floor test tomorrow to prove that his government enjoys a majority in the House. Names of the members in the Karnataka cabinet is still kept under wraps. An announcement in this regard to expected to be made a day after the new government takes a floor test.
Ahead of the swearing-in, there were several breakaway meetings between opposition leaders. West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and her Andhra Pradesh counterpart Chandrababu Naidu, who briefly met today, had pitched for all regional parties to come together for the development of a federal setup in the country. Both Banerjee and Naidu said they were happy that the leader of a regional party was assuming office and they were here to express their solidarity with the JDS.
“We are present here to support Kumaraswamy ji and his government and we hope for the best,” Banerjee told reporters with Naidu standing next to her.
“We will keep in touch with all the regional parties so that we can work for the development of the nation, development of the people and development of the federal set-up also,” the West Bengal chief minister added.
If states are strong, the Centre would also be strong, she said adding, “Our mission and vision is very clear, that we can meet each other, we can talk to each other, and we can go to every state and talk to each other that will give us more strength for the future of the country.”
with PTI inputs