(Source: ECI / CVoter)
Karnataka: Siddaramaiah's Swearing-In To Turn Into Show of Strength For Opposition
Karnataka CM Swearing-In: Mamata Banerjee, Sharad Pawar, Naveen Patnaik are among a host of Oppn leaders invited by Congress to Siddaramaiah's swearing-in ceremony.
The swearing-in ceremony of Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah and his deputy DK Shivakumar will turn into a marker of Opposition unity against BJP as Congress has invited a host of regional party leaders across several states. The swearing-in ceremony will be held on May 20 in Bengaluru and 11 Cabinet ministers are expected to take oath apart from Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar.
The Chief Ministers of non-BJP ruled states who have been invited are Chhattisgarh's Bhupesh Baghel, Rajasthan's Ashok Gehlot, Himachal Pradesh's Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, Jharkhand's Hemant Soren, Tamil Nadu's MK Stalin, Telangana's K Chandrashekar Rao, West Bengal's Mamata Banerjee, Bihar's Nitish Kumar and Odisha's Naveen Patnaik.
Recently, Patnaik had rejected the possibility of an Opposition front to take on the BJP and said his BJD would go solo in the 2024 Lok Sabha election. "There is no possibility of a Third front as far as I am concerned," ANI quoted the Odisha CM as saying.
Other Opposition leaders who have been called for the ceremony are Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, former Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray, Bihar Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav and NC chief Farooq Abdullah.
Several leaders have said Congress's thumping win in the Karnataka Assembly election would give a huge boost to Opposition unity ahead of the general election next year.
Nitish Kumar, who has been meeting several Opposition leaders to forge an united front to take on the BJP, has held talks with leaders of regional parties in states such as Delhi, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Kerala and Odisha.
Nitish Kumar plans to execute a one candidate-one seat formula in these states, which have a total of 256 Lok Sabha seats. Apart from Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra, other states have non-Congress governments.
READ | 'Wherever Any Party Is Strong...': Akhilesh Yadav On Mamata Banerjee's 'Support Congress' Remark
Recently, Mamata Banerjee also said her party would support the Congress "wherever it is strong" in the 2024 election. However, she stressed that Congress should reciprocate the same attitude towards the TMC if it wanted her support.
Banerjee proposed that Opposition parties in India should unite and support the party that was strong in its respective state. On the seat-sharing formula, Banerjee said strong regional parties must get priority.
"Wherever a regional political party is strong there BJP cannot fight. The parties which are strong in a particular region should fight together. I am supporting Congress in Karnataka but it should not fight against me in Bengal," Banerjee said while speaking to reporters.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav also supported the TMC supremo's strategy. He said Nitish Kumar, K Chandrashekar Rao and other parties also hold the same opinion.
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