Rahul, Priyanka arrive in B'luru for swearing-in ceremony

Bengaluru, May 20 (IANS) Senior Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and party General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra arrived in Bengaluru on Saturday to participate in the swearing in ceremony of the new government in Karnataka.

According to sources, Rahul, Priyanka and Deputy Chief Minister designate D.K. Shivakumar will travel in the same vehicle to the Kanteerava Stadium.

Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin arrived in Bengaluru on Friday night.

The other top politicials who will be in attendance are Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar (Bihar), Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejasvi Yadav, NCP leader Sharad Pawar, former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackrey, former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilhesh Yadav, and former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Ministers Farooq Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti.

CPM General Secretary Sitaram Yechury, CPI General Secretary D. Raja, JD(U) president Lallan Singh, MDMK president MP Vaiko, RSP president N.K. Premachandran, CPI (ML) Secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya, VCK president Thol Thirumavalavan, RLD chief Jayant Chaudhary, Kerala Congress president Jose K. Mani and IUML president Sadiq Ali Thangal will also take part.

A similar mega event was organised in 2018, when the JD(S)-Congress coalition government took office.

Besides Chief Minister designate Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar, eight more ministers will take oath during the ceremony.

On Thursday, Congress ended the suspense of naming the new Karnataka Chief Minister desigante after three days of back-to-back meetings.

In the May 10 Assembly elections, Congress had won 135 out of 224 seats, while the BJP was reduced to 66 and JD-S 19.