All eyes on Karnataka swearing-in today

After all the hullabaloo over who will be the next chief minister of Karnataka, the stage is all set for swearing-in of H D Kumaraswamy as Karnataka chief minister today. Top leaders from the Congress and the Janata Dal (Secular) (JD(S)) met on Tuesday to discuss the portfolio sharing formula. The CM-designate had earlier met Rahul Gandhi and his mother, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi on Monday at the latter's residence.

Sources privy to the meeting said that the Congress-JD(S) combine discussed power sharing formula in detail. There will be 33 ministers in Kumaraswamy's cabinet – 22 from the Congress and 11 from the JD(S). Congress' general secretary KC Venugopal, who held negotiations with the JD(S) in Bengaluru on Tuesday, also revealed that the party's Karnataka unit chief, G Parameshwara, will be Kumaraswamy's No. 2 in the state government. He will take oath as deputy chief minister alongside Kumaraswamy on Wednesday.

The Speaker in the Karnataka Assembly will also be from the Congress, while the deputy speaker will be from the JDS. KR Ramesh Kumar will be appointed the Speaker. Kumar won from the Srinivasapur seat in south Karnataka. The appointment of Parameshwara, a Dalit, as the deputy CM could help the Congress woo the community ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha election. The SC/ST communities are estimated to make up about a fourth of Karnataka's population. He will be the first Dalit to be appointed to the post in Karnataka.

Parameshwara is a five-time MLA and has been chief of the KPCC for eight years now. He was also in contention to become the chief minister in 2013 but lost out to Siddaramaiah.

In the past six decades, no Dalit leader made it to the post of CM or Deputy CM in Karnataka. Political parties mostly preferred people mostly from the dominant communities of Lingayat and Vokkaligas. While opposition chief minister J.H.Patel (1996-1999) the Opposition Congress, had projected Malikarjun Kharge, then KPCC president, as next CM. But when the party won elections in 1999, it nominated S M Krishna.

The swearing-in of Kumaraswamy is set to see one-time rivals in Uttar Pradesh, Mayawati and Akhilesh Yadav, sharing a public platform. Though Mayawati's Bahujan Samaj Party and Akhilesh Yadav's Samajwadi Party have recently come closer, particularly after they together managed to win the Lok Sabha byelections in Gorakhpur and Phulpur, their leaders have not been seen together on a public platform. Among the confirmed attendees are UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati, West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, and Andhra Pradesh chief minister N Chandrababu Naidu among others.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to accord urgent hearing on a plea filed by the Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha (ABHM) challenging Governor Vajubhai Vala's decision to invite the Congress-JD (S) combine to form government in Karnataka.

The matter was mentioned before a bench comprising Justices A M Khanwilkar and Navin Sinha. "You have mentioned it but we have not accepted it. It will come up in due course," the bench told the counsel representing the outfit.

(With Agency Inputs)

Alliance Deal

• The cabinet will have 33 ministers – 22 from the Congress and 11 from the JD(S).
• Congress’ G Parameshwara will take oath as deputy chief minister.
• In the past six decades, no Dalit leader made it to the post of CM or Deputy CM in state