Siddaramaiah to take oath as Karnataka CM today; three Malayalis may become ministers

NEW DELHI: Congress veteran leader Siddaramaiah will be sworn in as Karnataka Chief Minister on Saturday afternoon along with DK Shivakumar as Deputy Chief Minister. Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot will administer the oath of office and secrecy to the CM and his cabinet at the swearing-in ceremony scheduled to be held at Bengaluru's Kanteerava Stadium at around 12:30 PM. 20 MLAs will also be sworn in on the occasion as ministers, sources said. These 20 were selected from the jumbo list of 80 persons.

It is indicated that former minister and Kottayam Chingavanam native KJ George, Kasargod natives UT Khader and NA Haris are also on the 80-member list. Khader is also a former minister.

Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar returned to Delhi yesterday afternoon and held the first round of talks with AICC General Secretary KC Venugopal. They handed over the list of ministers to Congress President Kharge after meeting Rahul Gandhi at Sonia's residence in the evening.

Shivakumar said that he came to Delhi along with Siddaramaiah to invite Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi. However, Mallikarjun Kharge's son and MLA Priyank Kharge said that the leaders came to Delhi to discuss the list of ministers.