Opposition parties on guest list of oath-taking ceremony at Rajasthan

Political heavyweights from all corners of the country and differing ideological lines are expected to come together at Jaipur for the oath-taking ceremony of Congress government at Rajasthan. 

These leaders will share the dais with Congress president Rahul Gandhi and former prime minister Manmohan Singh in display of solidarity against the National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre led by prime minister Narendra Modi. Congress intends to make a nationwide statement of its tri-state victory through the three ceremonies planned on the same day and Rajasthan is to be first in the series and possibly, the grandest of them. 

“The expected dignitaries include Andhra Pradesh CM and president of TDP Chandrababu Naidu,  leader of opposition of Bihar assembly and RJD leader Tejaswi Yadav, DMK president MK Stalin, JD (S) president HD Deve Gowda, Sharad Yadav of LJD, National Conference chairman Farooq Abdullah and leaders of several other parties,” says a senior Congress leader.  

Earlier this year, many of these dignitaries shared the platform together with the Congress president at swearin-in ceremony of HD Kumarswamy as chief minister of JDS-Congress coalition government at Karnataka. The event held in May at Bengaluru featured more faces, including West Bengal chief minister and TMC chief Mamta Banerjee, BSP supremo Mayawati and SP chief Akhilesh Yadav on board.  

“Mamta Banerjee and Mayawati have been invited for the swearing-in ceremony of Congress government at Madhya Pradesh, the Congress president and other senior party leaders will also be part of the ceremony,” a Congress leader informed DNA. 

The Congress has thus set the platform to occupy the nation’s attention on Monday. The oath-taking ceremony in Rajasthan in morning, MP in afternoon and Chattisgarh in evening will reflect upon the ‘unity of opposition’ parties, while symbolising the defeat of BJP governments in all these states. 

The move will also form a base for the strategy for 2019 parliamentary elections. A seed for this was laid at the HD Kumaraswamy oath-taking ceremony, however, it failed to keep the parties together for long. The BSP and left parties had independently contested the assembly elections in Rajasthan.