Siddaramaiah takes oath as 24th Karnataka chief minister

Siddaramaiah was sworn in as Karnataka chief minister of Karnataka for the second term on Saturday, along with state Congress President D K Shivakumar as deputy CM, and eight legislators as ministers, a week after the party swept the Assembly polls in Karnataka.

The new ministry took oath at Bengaluru's Kanteerava stadium in the presence of thousands of people.

The new ministers are: G Parameshwara, Priyank Kharge, KH Muniyappa, MB Patil, Satish Jarkiholi, Ramalinga Reddy, KJ George and BZ Zameer Ahmed Khan.


The 24th CM, who was chosen after days of tense deliberation, attributed the party's success to AICC leader Rahul Gandhi's Bharat Jodo yatra. "Our victory is the victory of Karnataka's six crore people," he said.

Gandhi, who attended the event, called it a victory of love over hatred. "We won because we had the support of the poor and the truth. The BJP had wealth, power, police and the people of Karnataka defeated them," he said.

Several leaders, including Bihar CM Nitish Kumar, Tamil Nadu CM M.K. Stalin, Rajasthan CM Ashok Gehlot, former Madhya Pradesh CM Kamal Nath, Bihar Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, former J&K CM Mehbooba Mufti, and National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah, attended the event. The ceremony is said to have been Congress' show of Opposition unity in the face of the Lok Sabha polls next year.

Tamil superstar Kamal Hassan, Kannada actors Shivaraj Kumar and Duniya Vijay, actress-turned-politicians Ramya and Umashree and film producer V. Rajendra Singh Babu also attended the event.