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K’taka cabinet clears five poll ‘guarantees’
Veteran Congress leader Siddaramaiah took oath on Saturday as the new chief minister of Karnataka, with DK Shivakumar as his deputy, a week after the party’s resounding victory in the state assembly elections
Veteran Congress leader Siddaramaiah took oath on Saturday as the new chief minister of Karnataka, with DK Shivakumar as his deputy, a week after the party’s resounding victory in the state assembly elections. Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot administered the oath of office and secrecy to the CM, deputy CM, and their eight cabinet colleagues at a ceremony at Sree Kanteerava Stadium in Bengaluru.
Soon after the swearing-in ceremony, the cabinet at its first meeting gave in-principle approval to the five “guarantees” outlined in the party’s manifesto ahead of the elections.
The Congress, in its manifesto, promised to implement the five guarantees — 200 units of free power to all households (Gruha Jyoti), ₹2,000 monthly assistance to the woman head of every family (Gruha Lakshmi), 10kg of rice free to every member of a BPL household (Anna Bhagya), ₹3,000 every month for unemployed graduate youth and ₹1,500 for unemployed diploma holders (both in the age group of 18-25) for two years (YuvaNidhi), and free travel for women in public transport buses (Shakti) — on the very first day of assuming power in the state.
Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar, who is also the party’s state unit president, said the financial details for the implementation of the guarantees will be released soon, even as the CM said that according to initial estimates the financial outlay will be around ₹50,000 crore.
To be sure, the implementation of these “guarantees” will amount to an additional hit of nearly 15% of the state’s annual budget, roughly ₹3.15 lakh crore, even though Siddaramaiah expressed confidence that the figure was doable. Fiscal experts have stressed the need for a larger nationwide debate encompassing the revenue sharing arrangements between the Centre and the states, central welfare schemes that often extend to state subjects, and the key question of affordability when it comes to the financial implications of so-called election freebies.
The oath ceremony on Saturday commenced about 10 minutes behind the scheduled time of 12.30pm, with several national and local leaders in attendance.
While senior party leaders, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, and party chief Mallikarjun Kharge flanked Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar at the swearing-in, leaders of “like-minded parties” attended the ceremony in a rare show of unity ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah, Peoples Democratic Party leader Mehbooba Mufti, Bihar deputy chief minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal leader Tejashwi Yadav, RLD leader Jayant Singh, actor-turned-political Kamal Haasan, DMK leader and Tamil Nadu chief minister MK Stalin, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury, and CPI leader D Raja were present at the ceremony. Trinamool Congress leader and West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee did not go to the event in person but deputed Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar from her party to attend.
Apart from the opposition leaders, chief ministers from Congress-ruled states — Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu (Himachal Pradesh), Ashok Gehlot (Rajasthan), and Bhupesh Baghel (Chhattisgarh) — also attended the event.
Addressing the gathering after the swearing-in, the chief minister said, “We will give an administration which people have expected from us. Five guarantees will be passed in the cabinet meeting and an order will be issued to implement them today itself.”
After hours of deliberations on Friday, which went late into the night, the Congress released the first list of eight cabinet ministers. The legislators, who took oath on Saturday, included G Parameshwara, KH Muniyappa, KJ George, MB Patil, Satish Jarkiholi, Priyank Kharge (AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge’s son), Ramalinga Reddy, and BZ Zameer Ahmed Khan.
The party appears to have given representation to the state’s key communities in the cabinet formation, with one Lingayat MLA, two Dalit MLAs, one Christian and one Muslim.
Attributing the party’s victory to their welfare promises for the poor, Dalits, Adivasis, and backward communities, former Congress president Rahul Gandhi said, “After Congress’s victory, many things were written as to how Congress won this election, different analyses were done but I want to say that Congress won because we stood with the poor, Dalits, and Adivasis, backwards. We had the truth, poor people. BJP had money, police and everything but the people of Karnataka defeated all their powers.”
In the May 10 elections to the 224-member Assembly, the Congress registered a resounding victory with 135 seats, while the ruling BJP and former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda-led Janata Dal (Secular) secured 66 and 19 seats, respectively.
Kharge hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the RBI’s announcement on Friday to withdraw ₹2,000 notes as legal tender.
“Whenever he (Modi) goes to Japan, he issues a notification of demonetisation. The last time when he went to Japan, he demonetised ₹1,000 notes. This time he has demonetised the ₹2,000 note…. The Modi government is just causing problems for the people,” he said.
The PM is in Hiroshima, Japan, for the G7 summit.
Later in the day, the cabinet met for the first sitting at the Vidhan Soudha, where Siddaramaiah said that the pre-poll assurances will be implemented notwithstanding the financial implications.
Addressing mediapersons after the cabinet meeting, Siddaramaiah said the Assembly would be convened for three days from May 22, during which the newly elected MLAs shall be administered oath. The Speaker’s election is also on the cards.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar on assuming their roles. In a tweet, he said, “Congratulations to Shri @siddaramaiah Ji on taking oath as Karnataka CM and Shri @DKShivakumar Ji on taking oath as Deputy CM. My best wishes for a fruitful tenure.”
Former chief minister Basavaraj Bommai also congratulated his successor. “Heartiest congratulations to Siddaramaiah for assuming the office as the new Chief Minister of Karnataka and his cabinet members,” the BJP leader tweeted.
