DMK working president MK Stalin on Tuesday said that he would be unable to attend the swearing in ceremony of Karnataka CM HD Kumaraswamy in Bengaluru.
Addressing a group of reporters, Stalin said he would not be able to attend the event due to the violence in Tuticorin that killed at least 11 people.
Earlier, at least 11 people were killed after month-long protests for the closure of Vedanta's Sterlite Copper unit in Tuticorin over pollution concerns turned violent with agitators fighting pitched battles with police.
Hurling stones and setting government vehicles and public property on fire, the agitators went on the rampage in the town, about 600 km from Chennai.
Sterlite Copper is a unit of Vedanta Limited which operates a 400,000-tonne per annum capacity plant in Tuticorin.
Meanwhile, Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao met Kumaraswamy on Tuesday and expressed regret that he would not attend the swearing in ceremony. Experts feel that it is due to the JD(S)’s ‘unholy’ alliance with the Congress.
Ahead of his oath taking ceremony, JD(S) leader HD Kumaraswamy on Tuesday confirmed the list of leaders attending the event.
"Most of the leaders, other than BJP leaders, will attend oath taking ceremony tomorrow. Rahul Ji, Ghulam Nabi Aazad, Maywati Ji, Mamata Banerjee, Akhilesh Yadav, Chandrababu Naidu, Stalin, several people are coming," Kumaraswamy was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal will also attend the swearing-in ceremony, according to a government official on Monday. "Kejriwal will attend HD Kumarswamy's oath taking ceremony. He has been invited by former prime minister H D Deve Gowda," the official said.
The third son of former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda had earlier headed the BJP-JD(S) coalition government for twenty months from January 2006. His swearing-in ceremony on Wednesday is likely to to be a grand event at Kanteerava stadium with the presence of many Opposition leaders.
Earlier on Monday, Kumaraswamy met UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Congress president Rahul Gandhi, while the two parties worked on an initial power sharing-arrangement in Karnataka.
Kumaraswamy also met and requested a string of leaders to attend his swearing-in, billed as an event to mobilise anti-BJP forces ahead of next year's general elections. "I wanted to show my respect and regards to the Gandhi family. That's why I came here. I requested them to be present at the oath-taking ceremony and both of them agreed to be there," he said.
Rahul said that he discussed the political situation in Karnataka and other matters of mutual interest during the meet. "I will be attending his swearing-in as CM of Karnataka, on Wednesday, in Bengaluru," Rahul Gandhi said in a tweet.
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