Bengaluru, May 20 (IANS) Siddaramaiah and D.K. Shivakumar on Saturday took oath as the new Karnataka Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister, respectively, at the swearing in ceremony of the new Congress government in the state.

The oath of office was administered to the two leaders by state Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot at ceremony currently underway at the Kanteerava Stadium here.

This is the second tenure for Siddaramaiah as the Chief Minister. He previously served between 2013 and 2018.

While he took oath as the 24th Chief Minister in the name of God, Shivakumar took in the name of his spiritual guru Shri Gangadhara Ajja.

While, G. Parameshwara took the oath of office in the name of the Constitution, veteran Congress leaders K.H. Muniyappa and K.J George took oath in the name of God.

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. Nearly a lakh of people are attending the swearing in ceremony.

Taking to Twitter ahead of the ceremony, Rahul Gandhissaid: "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."

New Delhi, May 18 (IANS) The Congress on Thursday ended the suspense over the next Karnataka Chief Minister after it announced the name of veteran leader Siddaramaiah for the top post and state unit chief D.K. Shivakumar as his deputy.

The delay in announcing the name was due to the tussle between the two but it is learnt that it was UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, who ultimately convinced Kanakapura MLA to accept the role of the Deputy Chief Minister.

Shivakumar was not ready for any other post than that of the Chief Minister, which led to series of meetings between the senior party leaders for three consecutive days in the national capital. Congress President Mallikarjun Kharge, former party chief Rahul Gandhi, General Secretary, Organisation K.C. Venugopal, Karnataka in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala and the three central observers -- former Maharashtra Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, party leades Jitendra Singh and Deepak Babaria had met several times.

A party source related to development said that Shivakumar was not ready to leave the top post in the state, until his conversation with Sonia Gandhi. It was her call and her assurances that made Shivakumar amenable.

Siddaramaiah had arrived in the national capital on Monday afternoon whereas Shivakumnar had arrived in the national capital on Tuesday afternoon after he could not come on Monday due to stomach infection. Both the leaders had met Kharge, Surjewala, Venugopal and Rahul Gandhi and presented their case with them. Shivakumar also met separately with Kharge once again to present his case. It was then Kharge felt the need to involve former party chief Sonia Gandhi to speak to the Karnataka Congress chief and accept the formula prepared by the party.

During the party's Nav Sankalp Chintan Shivir in Udaipur in May last year, Sonia Gandhi had asked Shivakumar to win Karnataka and also said that she is with him, the source added.

After her telephone call, Shivakumar accepted the party's decision and an announcement was made on Thursday afternoon by Surjewala and Venugopal.

After accepting the party's decision, Shivakumar told the media on Thursday morning: "The party high command has taken a decision. And I have taken the decision in the larger interest of the party."

The Congress had registered a thumping victory in May 10 polls, where the party won 135 out of 224 seats whereas the ruling BJP was reduced to 66 seats.

New Delhi, May 18 (IANS) Congress on Thursday declared veteran party leader Siddaramaiah as the Chief Minister of Karnataka and state unit chief D.K Shivakumar his only deputy after three days of consultations.

Addressing a press conference here at the party headquarters here, General Secretary (Organisation) K.C. Venugopal along with Karnataka in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala thanked the people of Karnataka for the "spectacular victory in favour of Congress".

"This election was clearly between the poor versus rich in Karnataka. Entire poor people and middle class people stood with Congress. Our leadership, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra and others worked very hard to make this victory happen," he said.

Venugopal said that Kharge spent one month in Karnataka to monitor the election whereas Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi extensively toured the state.

"We want to thank them for the same. Even UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi's advice and presence in the campaign strengthened our prospects and electrified our cadres. There is no word to thank her," he said.

Venugopal said, "Kharge had serious consultation with senior leaders and one to one discussion with Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar and we all were part of the discussion and he took views of Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi. Finally, Kharge took a decision on the Karnataka CM issue."

"He conveyed to me to announce his decision to the media and people of Karnataka.

"He (Congress president Kharge) decided to make Siddaramaiah as the CM of Karnataka. Siddaramaiah will be the CM of Karnataka. D.K. Shivakumar will be the only one Deputy CM of Karnataka and he will continue as KPCC president till Parliament elections are over," he announced.

He said that the swearing-in ceremony will take place on May 20.

Venugopal also said that on May 13 results of polling were announced and on May 14, we had a CLP meeting, three observers were there for the CLP meeting.

"On the night of May 14 and morning of May 15 they held a one to one meeting with MLAs. Then the observers submitted their report with the party chief," he said.

Venugopal said, "We believe in consensus and not dictatorship. For the last three days we were working for consensus and there have been a group of senior leaders. Siddaramaiah is our senior leader and he contributed a lot for Congress. Tirelessly he worked for the party though the state.

He even hailed D.K. Shivakumar was a dynamic leader and said that he electrified the cadre of the party. Wherever there was a gap he reached there and filled the gap. Both are big assets of Karnataka.

Everyone has their own wish and desire to become the CM, which is nothing wrong, he said.

Venugopal also said that the party will be sending invitations to all the opposition leaders for the swearing-in ceremony.

Bengaluru, May 17 (IANS) The impasse over the selection of Karnataka's next Chief Minister continued on a fourth day on Wednesday with both Siddaramaiah and state Congress president D.K. Shivakumar not settling for anything lesser than the coveted post.

The Congress high command is hopeful of somehow finding a solution during a meeting on Wednesday in New Delhi.

Senior leader Rahul Gandhi and AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge will speak to Shivakumar and Siddaramaiah, party sources stated.

Shivakumar is claiming that after for nearly 25 years, Vokkaliga and Lingayat communities have voted for the Congress because of him and if he was not made the Chief Minister, the party would lose their support, according to the sources.

He refused to accept the post of Deputy Chief Minister and flatly declined to work with Siddaramaiah.

Shivakumar told Kharge that instead he will remain an MLA and would not indulge in anti-party activities.

He also told him that he will extend his full support if Kharge himself becomes the Chief Minister.

On the other hand, Siddaramaiah is citing the criminal cases against Shivakumar and arguing that if the latter is made named the Chief Minister, the BJP will use it to attack the Congress at the national level.

Siddaramaiah stressed that the Ahinda vote bank has propelled the Congress to victory and he was their leader.

If he is not made the Chief Minister, Congress will lose next year's Lok Sabha elections, the sources explained.

Shivakumar has told Kharge that Dalits and minority votes were always there with Congress and Siddaramaiah cannot own them.

Kharge is also the reason for consolidation of votes of oppressed classes for the Congress party, the sources said.

Shivakumar defended that party very well when he was targeted and sent to jail by BJP for standing by the Congress party.

The high command is carefully considering the claims.

As the Congress leadership wants to send a message to the country from Karnataka, it does not want anything to go wrong which would spoil the momentum.

New Delhi, May 16 (IANS) Karnataka Congress chief D.K. Shivakumar, who is vying for the CM's post, told party President Mallikarjun Kharge on Tuesday that he took over the reins of the party in 2020 when no one was ready for the job, sources said.

During their meeting, Shivakumar, it is also learnt, told Kharge that if he himself becomes the Karnataka Chief Minister, then he would not have any opposition to it and will support him fully.

According to party sources, Shivakumar, who met Kharge for around 45 minutes, stressed that he took over the job as Congress chief in Karnataka when no one was ready to accept it, and he he delivered as per the expectation of the party leadership in the state.

The source further said that Shivakumar also said that when the party lost in 2018 under Siddaramaiah, he didn't oppose him.

It is further learnt that Shivakumar also pitched his candidature for the top post in the state but told Kharge if he is not given it, he will like to continue working as a MLA.

Shivakumar had arrived in the national capital on Tuesday afternoon. He had cancelled his trip to Delhi on Monday due to stomach infection.

Meanwhile, soon after Shivakumar left Kharge's residence, Siddaramaiah arrived there.

Party sources said that, however, no confirmation for the Chief Ministerial post has been given to Shivakumar by Kharge.

The source also said that announcement on new Chief Minister will be done on Wednesday in Bengaluru.

Meeting of both the leaders with Kharge comes hours after Rahul Gandhi, party General Secretary, Organisation, K.C. Venugopal and Karnataka in-charge Randeep Singh Surjewala held a long discussion with the party chief to decide on the new Karnataka Chief Minister. The meeting of the senior Congress leaders lasted for over one and half hours.

On Monday night, party sources had said that the Congress chief will decide on the next CM after discussing the result of the secret ballot voting with UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi and former party chief Rahul Gandhi. Sonia Gandhi is currently in Shimla.

All the three observers for Karnataka had submitted their report to Kharge on Monday and the meeting of the party leaders lasted for over 5 hours.

Sources said that despite Siddaramaiah getting the majority, Shivakumar is not willing to budge. He is claiming that he had delivered the victory to the party and hence deserved the Chief Minister's post.

New Delhi, May 15 (IANS) The Congress romped to a thumping victory in Karnataka, defeating the BJP, and exulting in the party's triumph is state unit chief D.K. Shivakumar, who was tasked to deliver in the state after the Congress-JD-S coalition government collapsed in 2019 due to defections.

Shivakumar, along with his dedicated team, which worked with him closely in the last two years, strove to ensure that the party gets a brute majority in the next polls with lot of work at the ground level.

Along with him was his "shadow" Naresh Arora, Director and Founder of the DesignedBox, which managed the campaign, survey and assessment at the grassroot level for the Karnataka state unit chief.

Even when Shivakumar appeared before the Enforcement Directorate (ED) last year in connection with the money laundering probe, Arora was there along with the Congresss leader's brother D.K. Suresh.

In an interview with IANS, Arora opened up on the Congress' Karnataka success, saying that he was not surprised at the outcome "because we have been working in Karnataka for the last two years, we were having a regular touch and feedback and tracking service system which was telling us that Congress is performing well".

"Seat analysis was with us and we could clearly see that the numbers should be somewhere in the range of 135 to 145. Some seats we lost by very small margins, otherwise the number would have been comfortably around 140."

Amid internal fighting in the Congress camp, especially between Leader of Opposition in the outgoing Assembly and former CM Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar, which used to get most of the headlines, it was Arora who brought both together and showed them in chit chat and discussing issues of Karnataka.

Asked how did he managed to accomplish this image of the cooperation, not conflict, and what was its impact, Arora said: "See, first of all, these two leaders do not fight with each other. This is a wrong notion. This is propaganda.

"These two leaders have their own roles and responsibilities and own ambitions and that is nothing wrong. But when it comes to the party thing, they have a common trait and both of them discuss the strategies."

Arora also highlighted the videos of the two leaders, which was released days before the voting in the state, where both were seen talking about the policies and plan and the programmes they want to implement once the government is formed in Karnataka.

"So this is a media creation, that they are fighting with each other. When they're in politics, everyone wants to be ahead of others, but without a party, both of them believe that it is not possible. And they work very closely during these elections," Arora added.

Asked about that he was involved in evolving the strategy of the party for last two years so which campaign or strategic move does he think has been the biggest contributor to this result, Arora said, "It will be unfair to give credit to one campaign because Congress in these last two years under the leadership of Shivakumar was running sustained campaigns one after the other in which there were various aspects involved in connecting with the people, connecting with their own party worker connecting with youth through social media on ground.

"So it is a culmination of multiple campaigns run one after the other, which Congress is generally not known for, little known for one campaign and then gets over and then everyone gets lost. And then they come back after a couple of months or a year."

But here (in Karnataka) the consistency was there, the hard work was visible, he added.

"And people definitely appreciate and reward hard work when they see and this is what the results have conveyed with the kind of number that Congress have got," he said.

About how much difference did the "Freedom March" organised and supervised by his team made to improve the Congress' fortunes, the DesignedBox Director said: "It was a very hugely successful event, for which the preparations started a month and a half before the event. It was on record the biggest congreation of people on a routine target in independent India, as three lakh people were walking on the streets of Bangalore, it was an unprecedented thing. And 80 per cent of them were under 35 years of age, which is huge.

"It was a hugely phenomenal successful program, but again, it cannot be attributed as just one single thing which got it it is the culmination of things."

About why the word 'guarantee', which he coined for Congress in last year's Assam Assembly elections and the party's offer of monthly transfer of Rs 2,000 in accounts of every woman did not work in Assam but people of Karnataka accepted them, Arora contended that that the word guarantee was coined definitely in Assam campaign but could not result into the kind of vote which Congress was seeking because the party did not have time to implement those things.

"But here (in Karnataka) Congress has the time, Rs 2,000 was offered there (Assam) also and same was offered here and the people were sent to door to door, social media was used and it was delivered in the form of the guarantee card to the people. And people resonated with it, thinking that this is going to come to them because people need to be explained that what is in store for them when they are going to vote or before voting," Arora stressed.

He felt that because the Congress started in time in Karnataka, it has the luxury of interacting with people convincing them telling them what is in store and what will be given, how will it be given and what the benefits should be?

"So I think that is why the word guarantee and Rs 2,000 worked in Karnataka, and I am pretty sure that Congress will learn the lesson that they should start in time and other states also so that their guarantees or their promises reach people in time and make its impact on their final outcome," Arora asserted.

The Congress won 135 out of 224 seats in Karnataka where the voting was done on May 10. The ruling BJP was reduced to only 66 seats while the JD-S, which was dreaming of playing a 'kingmaker', was reduced to 19 seats.