All set for Kumaraswamy to take oath as Karnataka CM

Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) leader H.D. Kumaraswamy is set to take oath on Wednesday evening as the 25th Chief Minister of Karnataka, with state Congress head G. Parameshwara as his deputy in the coalition government.

The swearing-in ceremony is expected to be attended by a galaxy of opposition leaders with regional parties cutting across political lines coming together in a show of unity ahead of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

Those scheduled to be present include Congress President Rahul Gandhi, his mother and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati, Samajwadi Party leader Akhilesh Yadav, Rashtriya Lok Dal chief Ajit Singh, Rashtriya Janata Dal's Tejaswi Yadav and actor and politician Kamal Hassan.

Communist Party of India-Marxist General Secretary Sitaram Yechury is also likely to attend.

Among the non-NDA Chief Ministers likely to attend the swearing-in ceremony would be West Bengal's Mamata Banerjee, Kerala's Pinarayi Vijayan, Andhra Pradesh's Chandrababu Naidu and Delhi's Arvind Kejriwal.

The third son of former Prime Minister and JD-S supremo H.D. Deve Gowda, Kumaraswamy, 58, won from Ramanagaram and Channapatna segments in the May 12 Assembly election.

Earlier in the day, he visited his parents' house in Bengaluru south and took the blessings of Gowda and mother Chennamma for becoming the Chief Minister for a second time.

The Chief Minister-designate offered prayers to Hindu goddess Chamundeshwari at a hill temple ahead of taking oath.

The JD-S-Congress combine has 117 members, including one from regional party Karnataka Pragnyavantha Janata Paksha (KPJP) and an Independent.

In the 224-member Assembly, which currently has 222 members, the JD-S has 36, its pre-poll ally BSP has one, Congress 78 and the BJP 104 members.

The JD-S agreed to form a post-poll alliance with the Congress that kept the BJP, the single largest party, away from power in its only southern bastion.

--IANS

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