3 Congress CMs to take oath in Hindi heartland today, eyes on Oppn unity

New Delhi: After victory in the recently concluded assembly elections, the Congress will take the reigns from the BJP in the three Hindi heartland states today. Following lengthy discussions and deliberations, the Rahul Gandhi-led party had named the Chief Ministers of Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh who will take oath today.

A host of leaders are expected to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Ashok Gehlot, Kamal Nath and Bhupesh Baghel.

Congress President Rahul Gandhi will be attending all the three oath-taking ceremonies. However, Mamata Banerjee, Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati, three of the country’s top opposition leaders, will give the event a miss.

Here are developments to this big story:

The swearing-in ceremony will start in Rajasthan when Ashok Gehlot will take oath as the new Chief Minister in Jaipur.

Kamal Nath will take the oath in Madhya Pradesh’s capital Bhopal around 1 pm and Bhupesh Baghel will take charge in Chhattisgarh’s Raipur at 4 pm.

Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu might make it to all three events, sources in Congress told news agency PTI.

Other prominent opposition leaders likely to attend the oath-taking ceremony include former prime minister HD Devegowda, Karnataka Chief Minister HD Kumaraswamy, former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah and Bihar opposition leader Tejashwi Yadav.

Sanjay Singh of Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party is also expected to be in attendance, adding fuel to speculations that the AAP and the Congress are trying to move forward from their well-known acrimony in a bid to see the BJP defeated in 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who will not be able to make it to the swearing-in ceremonies, will send her party lawmaker Dinesh Trivedi to attend the Madhya Pradesh event.

The absence of Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supermo Mayawati at the oath-taking event will be even more noticeable as she helped Congress touch majority in Madhya Pradesh, saying she wanted to rout out the BJP in the upcoming general polls.

On December 11, when votes were counted in five states after month-long elections, the Congress won Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh but the party did not fair well in Telangana and Mizoram.

The results were the BJP’s biggest electoral loss since PM Modi took office in 2014.