Schedule, venue and guests: All about Kumaraswamy‘s swearing-in ceremony

HD Kumaraswamy will today take oath as Karnataka Chief Minister who will head a JD(S)-Congress coalition government. Along with Kumaraswamy, Karnataka Congress president G Parameshwara will be sworn-in as the deputy chief minister.

This is the second oath-taking ceremony in Bengaluru within a week, after state BJP chief BS Yeddyurappa stepped down without facing the floor test on May 19.

Today's event is being seen as a major gathering of anti-BJP forces with top opposition leaders likely to mark their attendance at the ceremony. 

Here is everything that we need to know about the ceremony:

Venue

Kumaraswamy will be sworn in as the Chief Minister of Karnataka by Governor Vajubhai Vala at a stage set up on the grand steps of the Vidhana Soudha, the seat of power in the southern state. A huge stage has been erected in front of the majestic stone building for the ceremony.

Schedule

Kumaraswamy is likely to be sworn in by the Governor at 4:30 pm. The entire ceremony, including celebrations, is not likely to last more than an hour. Since only Kumaraswamy Parameshwara will be sworn-in, the main event will last for a few minutes. 

The JD(S) leader will on Friday seek a confidence vote with the election of the Assembly Speaker scheduled on Thursday. Officials had earlier said Kumaraswamy will seek a confidence vote on Thursday but the exercise was deferred by a day as a speaker has to be elected before the trust vote.

Leaders who will attend the ceremony

A galaxy of national and regional leaders are expected to be present to send a message across to the opposition BJP which emerged as the single largest party in May 12 elections.

The development could plant a seed for a broad-based anti-BJP platform before the Lok Sabha polls next year.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi, his mother and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi; Mamata Banerjee, N Chandrababu Naidu, Arvind Kejriwal and Pinarayi Vijayan, Chief Ministers of West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi and Kerala respectively, are among those likely to attend the swearing-in ceremony.

Other leaders who are likely to attend the ceremony are: CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury, RJD’s Tejashwi Yadav, the Leader of Opposition in the Bihar Assembly, National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah, BSP chief Mayawati and Samajwadi Party president Akhilesh Yadav. 

DMK leader M K Stalin was also expected to be present but has cancelled his Bengaluru visit and would instead head for Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu, where nine people were killed in police firing today.

Actor-turned-politician Kamal Hassan was also invited to the ceremony but is unlikely to attend considering volatile atmosphere in Tamil Nadu. 

Allocation of portfolios

The first task for Kumaraswamy as the Chief Minister would be a smooth expansion of his Council of Ministers. The Congress would have 22 ministers and JD(S) 12, AICC general secretary in-charge of the state K C Venugopal said on Tuesday.

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.

D K 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 chief minister-designate said on Tuesday that portfolio distribution would be discussed on Thursday.

(With PTI inputs)