Siddaramaiah takes oath as K'taka Chief Minister; DK Shivakumar as Deputy CM, 8 others as ministers

Siddaramaiah on Saturday took oath as the 24th Chief Minister of Karnataka at the swearing in ceremony of the new Congress government in the state.

The ceremony is underway at the Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru. Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot administered the oath of office to Siddaramaiah as Karnataka Chief Minister, while D K Shivakumar took oath as Deputy Chief Minister, followed by 8 others as Cabinet ministers.

This is Siddaramaiah's second tenure as the Chief Minister. He held the top post previously between 2013 and 2018.

AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, AICC General Secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin, former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Ministers Farooq Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti, Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Tejaswi Yadav, CPM General Secretary Sitaram Yachury, CPI General Secretary D. Raja, NCP veteran Sharad Pawar are among the prominent politicians are in attendance at the ceremony.

Tamil superstar Kamal Hassan, Kannada super star Shivaraj Kumar, popular actor Duniya Vijay, actress-turned-politician Ramya, actress Nishvika Naidu, senior actress turned politician Umashree and film director, producer V. Rajendra Singh Babu attended the event.

Siddaramaiah, Shivakumar joined their hands and waved at the crowd when they arrived at the venue. Later, Rahul Gandhi joined them as the crowd cheered. More than 50,000 people attended the swearing-in ceremony.

Taking to Twitter ahead of the ceremony, Rahul Gandhi said: "Great to be back among the people of Karnataka. Looking forward to the swearing in ceremony of the new Congress government, which will be a people centric government, focussed on bringing progress."

(With inputs from IANS)