HD Kumaraswamy to Take Oath as Karnataka Chief Minister on May 23, Congress’s G Parameshwara Likely to be Deputy CM

Speculations are rife that a total of 20 Janata Dal-Secular and 13 Congress leaders will take oath on Wednesday.along with HD Kumaraswamy.

Bengaluru, May 20: A day after BS Yeddyurappa resigned as Karnataka chief minister ahead of floor test in Vidhana Soudha and Governor Vajubhai Vala invited JD(S)’s HD Kumaraswamy, who is the leader of Congress-JD(S) combine, to form the government, speculations are rife that a total of 20 Janata Dal-Secular and 13 Congress leaders will take oath on Wednesday. Sources have also claimed that the post of Deputy chief minister, in all likelihood, will go to Congress leader G Parameshwara, who is presently heading the Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee. He has also served as Home Minister of Karnataka from 2015 to 2017.

Kumaraswamy will meet Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi on May 21 to extend his gratitude to them. “I will also discuss how many Congress and JD(S) MLAs will become ministers,” he had said.

West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee, BSP chief Mayawati, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, Andhra Pradesh chief minister Chandrababu Naidu, Telangana chief minister Chandrashekar Rao and several other regional leaders would be invited for the swearing-in ceremony.

Yes, tomorrow morning I'm going to Delhi, I'll meet Rahul Gandhi & Sonia Gandhi. Just 24 hours after the oath, I'll prove the majority: HD Kumaraswamy, CM-designate of #Karnataka. pic.twitter.com/y0CM9AMnWi

— ANI (@ANI) May 20, 2018

Earlier on Saturday, after meeting the Governor, Kumaraswamy had said the swearing-in ceremony would take place tentatively between 12 and 1.50 pm at Kanteerava stadium on May 21. But later in night, he said the swearing in ceremony would take place on May 23 as May 21 happens to be the date on which former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi was killed in a suicide bombing at Sriperumbudur near Chennai in 1991.

Speaking to reporters after meeting the Governor, Kumaraswamy said that he has been directed to prove the majority on the floor of the House in 15 days but he would do it much before. “On the invitation of the Governor I have met him on the basis of the request we had submitted on May 15 for the formation of Congress-JD(S) coalition government….he has invited us to form the government,” the state JD(S) chief said.

He said a coordination committee would be formed to prepare a common minimum programme to implement the promises made by the two coalition partners.

Asked by when he will prove majority, Kumaraswamy said, “As soon as possible we will call the assembly session to prove majority…. though Governor has given 15 days, we will not require that much time.”

The post election stitched alliance of JDS and Congress, which claims the support of 117 members, has already staked its claim to form the government and said it would be headed by Kumaraswamy.

Earlier Kumaraswamy, who is the third son of former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda, had headed the BJP-JD(S) coalition government for twenty months from January 2006.