Bengaluru: The swearing-in ceremony of Karnataka’s new Congress government, led by chief minister Siddaramaiah and his deputy DK Shivakumar, on Saturday turned into a show of strength of the Opposition ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections, with leaders from several political parties opposed to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) presenting a united face.
Enthused by the emphatic victory of the Congress in the recently concluded Karnataka assembly elections, — the party won 135 of the 224 seats —several opposition leaders, including Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar, his deputy Tejashwi Prasad Yadav, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar, Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin, and Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren used the oath-taking ceremony of Siddaramaiah to showcase opposition unity.
All these leaders also share an alliance with the Congress in their respective state. Nitish Kumar, whose Janata Dal (United) is part of the ruling Mahagathbandhan in Bihar, has also invited top leaders from various parties to Patna for a proposed meeting to chalk out a plan to forge an Opposition unity to take on the BJP in the next year’s general elections.
Chief ministers of Congress-ruled states — Ashok Gehlot (Rajasthan), Bhupesh Baghel (Chhattisgarh), and Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu (Himachal Pradesh) — besides former CMs of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, National Conference president Farooq Abdullah and PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti were also present on the occasion at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru.
Other dignitaries included Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, party leaders Rahul Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and Kamal Nath, CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury and his CPI counterpart D Raja, Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) leader Jayant Singh, actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan.
“All the parties that have come here to congratulate the new government are committed to protecting the Constitution and democracy against hatred and communal polarisation,” said Yechury. “…We are all committed to saving India and democracy, which is under attack.”
While Trinamool Congress chief and West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee was conspicuous by her absence at the event, her party was represented by Lok Sabha MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar during the event where eight other legislators also took oath as the minister, besides the CM and his deputy.
The Congress, however, did not invite Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, Telangana CM K Chandrashekar Rao, Andhra Pradesh CM Jagan Mohan Reddy, Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik, besides Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati for the swearing-in event in Bengaluru.
The BJP, meanwhile, dubbed as “farce” the Opposition unity.
“Nitish Kumar and Tejashwi Yadav are in Bengaluru for the swearing-in ceremony… but where is the opposition unity? Odisha CM Naveen Patnaik gave it a miss. Instead of attending it herself, Mamata Ji sent her party representative. Telangana’s ruling BRS did not even send its representative. If anyone claims that the event would showcase the Opposition’s unity, it is nothing but a farce,” said former Union minister and senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad.
“The country needs a strong government… which only the BJP can provide,” he said. “This government has made [India] the fifth biggest economy in the world. The respect of the country has increased in the world.”
