Kumaraswamy takes oath as Karnataka CM; top Oppn attend ceremony

Bengaluru, May 23

Janata Dal (Secular) leader HD Kumaraswamy was sworn in as chief minister of Karnataka on Wednesday in a ceremony that several opposition leaders attended.
Karnataka Congress president G Parameshwara was sworn in as his deputy. Governor Vajubhai Vala administered both oaths of office.
The development is seen as an attempt to cement a broad anti-BJP platform, with several opposition leaders coming together before the country goes to general elections next year.

Congress’s Ramesh Kumar, a former minister, will be the next Assembly Speaker, while the Deputy Speaker’s post will go to the JD(S), Venugopal said.
The Congress would have 22 ministers and the JD(S) 12, he said, adding they would be sworn-in after the floor test slated for Friday.

Officials had earlier said Kumaraswamy will seek a confidence vote on Thursday. The decision to defer the trust vote by a day ostensibly stems from rules that require the election of the speaker before the exercise.

Kumaraswamy is the second chief minister to take oath in Karnataka within a week, after Yeddyurappa stepped down without facing the floor test on May 19 in the face of an imminent defeat.
The JD-S’s Chief Minister-Designate said portfolio distribution would be discussed on Friday and a coordination committee would be formed to facilitate smooth functioning of the coalition.
Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi, Samajwadi Party’s Akhilesh Yadav, Telugu Desam Party’s Chandrababu Naidu, Rashtriya Janata Dal’s Tejashwi Yadav, Communist Party of India (Marxist)’s Sitaram Yechury, National Congress Party’s Sharad Pawar, Bahujan Swamaj Patry’s Maywati, and Trinamool Congress’s Mamata Banerjee attended the ceremony.

Managing the contradictions in the coalition may not be a smooth sailing for the 58-year-old leader after the JD (S) and the Congress fought a bitter electoral battle in the state, particularly in the old Mysuru region.

Kumaraswamy himself conceded that running the coalition government for the next five years would be a “big challenge” for him.

The first task for him would be a smooth expansion of his Council of Ministers, as the Congress would want to have a big share in the ministerial pie as it has more than double the number of MLAs the JD (S) has.

The Congress has 78 lawmakers in the Lower House against the 37 of the JD (S).

A section of Lingayat MLAs of the Congress wanted a person from their community to be the deputy chief minister as Kumaraswamy belongs to another politically influential caste, the Vokkaligas.

However, Rahul Gandhi approved the name of Dalit leader G Parameshwara for the post, Venugopal said.

DK Shivakumar, another Vokkaliga leader of the Congress who emerged as a key figure in keeping the party MLAs together before the trust vote, was also a contender for the deputy chief minister’s chair, but the party high command opted for Parameshwara.

The BJP, which is the single largest party with 104 MLAs in the 224-member Assembly (effective strength 221), would not allow Kumaraswamy to have a smooth running.

The BJP has dubbed the Congress-JD (S) alliance as “unholy” and claimed that the government will not complete its full term.

The saffron party boycotted the ceremony and announced it would observe “anti-popular mandate day” to protest the formation of the coalition government.