Karnataka Govt Formation: Who Are the VIP Politicians To Attend Swearing In?

As Siddaramaiah is scheduled to swear in as Chief Minister of Karnataka and DK Shivakumar as Deputy Chief Minister on Saturday, 20 May, a range of political leaders who are not associated with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) are expected to attend the oath taking ceremony.

Based on the security details released by the state, 11 VIP politicians with Z+ category security are expected to attend the meet.

The list includes Congress' top leadership – Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

Here's the full list of leaders who are scheduled to attend:

1. Mamata Banerjee, Chief Minister of West Bengal

2. Nitish Kumar, Chief Minister of Bihar

3. Hemant Soren, Chief Minister of Jharkhand

4. MK Stalin, Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu

5. N Rangaswamy, Chief Minister of Puducherry

6. Ashok Gehlot, Chief Minister of Rajasthan

7. Bhupesh Baghel, Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh

8. Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu, Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh

Other than the list drawn up currently, Congress' central leadership has extended invitation to other non-BJP political leaders too. Those invited are:

1. Sharad Pawar, President, Nationalist Congress Party

2. Akhilesh Yadav, President, Samajwadi Party

3. Omar Abdullah, Jammu and Kashmir National Conference

While the Congress leaders in Karnataka claimed that Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan and Telangana CM K Chandrashekar Rao were invited to the event, their respective offices told The Quint that no invitation had reached them. Meanwhile, Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal was also reportedly left out from the invitees list.

Speaking to The Quint about the list of invitees, a senior Congress leader said, "AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge has extended the party's invitation to several non-BJP leaders. The event will have the presence of several such."

(An earlier version of this article had mentioned that the CMs of Delhi, Kerala, and Telangana were invited, based on Karnataka Congress' claim. The error is regretted and has been corrected.)