Patna, 20/5: In a show of opposition unity, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, Nationalist Congress Party President Sharad Pawar, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M K Stalin and National Conference president Farooq Abdullah attended the swearing-in ceremony of Siddaramaiah as the Karnataka Chief Minister on Saturday.
Former Congress president Sonia Gandhi was not present during the ceremony at the Sree Kanteerava Stadium, where D K Shivakumar took oath as Deputy Chief Minister and eight MLAs as Cabinet Ministers.
Former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Kamal Nath, actor-politician Kamal Haasan, Jharkhand CM Hemant Soren and CPI(M) General Secretary Sitaram Yechury, and CPI General Secretary D Raja too were present.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, however, was conspicuous by her absence at the event, which was attended by tens of thousands of people as the Congress sought to promote opposition unity.
Banerjee has designated TMC Deputy Leader in Lok Sabha Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar for the programme.
The PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti, Chief Ministers of Congress-ruled states — Bhupesh Baghel (Chhattisgarh), Ashok Gehlot (Rajasthan) and Sukhwinder Singh Sukhu (Himachal Pradesh)–, and Bihar Deputy CM Tejashwi Yadav (RJD) were also present.