Kumaraswamy meets Sonia, Rahul in Delhi

New Delhi Two-day before his swearing-in ceremony, Karnataka’s chief minister-elect HD Kumaraswamy on Monday met United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi and Congress Chief Rahul Gandhi in the national capital.
Kumaraswamy and Rahul are expected to discuss the future of the Congress-Janata Dal (Secular) alliance in Karnataka.

JD(S) Secretary General Danish Ali and Congress’s KC Venugopal were also present here with Kumaraswamy.

Earlier in the day, Kumaraswamy met Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) supremo Mayawati at her residence here and invited her for his oath ceremony scheduled to take place on May 23 in Bengaluru.

The oath-taking ceremony will witnesses a gathering of non-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) chief ministers and chief of opposition parties.

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee, Puducherry Chief Minister Narayanasamy, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao will be attending the ceremony.

Apart from this, Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati will also mark their presence on the occasion.
Kumaraswamy has also invited Communist Party of India (Marxist) (CPI-M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury to attend his swearing-in ceremony.

On Saturday, Kumaraswamy was invited by Karnataka Governor Vajubhai Vala to form the government in the state, after Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) B.S. Yeddyurappa stepped down ahead of the floor test in the state assembly.

While Kumaraswamy was earlier expected to swear-in as Karnataka Chief Minister on Monday, the ceremony later got pushed to May 23 due to the death anniversary of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi today. (ANI)