All major Opposition leaders were present today at Vidhan Soudha as the Janata Dal (Secular)’s H.D. Kumaraswamy was sworn in as the Chief Minister of Karnataka. This was the second time Kumaraswamy became the state chief minister after 20 months in office during 2006-07.
However, no BJP leader turned up for the ceremony — instead, they observed “anti-people’s mandate day” across the state.
Sonia Gandhi, Congress President Rahul Gandhi, Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee, Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav, Bahujan Samaj Party supremo Mayawati, CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury, Andhra Pradesh CM N. Chandrababu Naidu, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal were among the heavyweights who attended the ceremony, giving out a clear message of unity ahead of the Lok Shobha election next year.
State Congress president G Parameshwara took oath as the deputy to Kumaraswamy. Congress will have 22 ministers while JD(S) will have 12 ministers in the cabinet who will take oath after the floor test, slated for tomorrow.
In the election, the BJP had emerged the single largest party by winning 104 seats, followed by the Congress with 78 seats and the JD(S) with 37 seats. The Congress and the JD(S) formed a quick alliance and claimed to form the government together with 115 seats. However, the Governor called the BJP to form the government and prove within 15 days that the party had the required number of MLAs. This led the Congress to file a plea in the Supreme Court. The apex court ordered a floor test on Saturday at 4 pm.
Though the BJP had 104 seats, they were short of eight MLAs required to reach 111 that was required to form the government. B.S. Yeddyurappa, instead of going for the floor test, resigned two days after he had been sworn in as the chief minister of Karnataka.
