The priorities of the new government are the implementation of 5 guarantees and the accommodation of all communities, regions, and factions.
CM Designate Siddaramaiah and DyCM Designate DK Shivakumar with Randeep Singh Surjewala (AICC General Secretary)
Siddaramaiah is slated to be sworn in as Chief Minister of Karnataka at 12.30 pm on Saturday, 20 May, in Bengaluru.
Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) chief DK Shivakumar will also be sworn in as Deputy Chief Minister.
With the stage set for the formal formation of a new government in Karnataka, the focus in the state in general and the Karnataka Congress in particular now shifts to other things.
The top among them is which MLA from whose ‘camp’ gets what portfolio. The immediate next focus is what happens to the Congress’ poll promises — the five guarantees.
Met Congress leaders Shri @RahulGandhi & Smt @priyankagandhi and thanked them in New Delhi today. pic.twitter.com/3W7DrkIDF1
— Siddaramaiah (@siddaramaiah) May 19, 2023
The first challenge that Siddaramaiah is expected to face is putting in place a Cabinet with the right combinations that will strike a balance in having representatives from all communities, regions, factions and also from among the old and new generations of legislators.
With the sanctioned strength of the Karnataka Cabinet being 34, there are too many aspirants for ministerial berths.
The Congress has won 135 seats in the 224-member Assembly.
According to sources in Congress, all discussions around who would make it to the Cabinet and hold what portfolios were held only in Delhi in the presence of the Congress top brass, including AICC president Mallikarjun Kharge.
With DK Shivakumar insisting that he should be the sole deputy chief minister, other senior leaders of the Congress — MB Patil, HK Patil, G Parameshwara, and KH Muniyappa — are expected to be handed plum portfolios like Home, Water Resources, Revenue, and Social Welfare.
The party’s central leadership has been keen on keeping choices for the Cabinet and portfolios under wraps.
Meanwhile, Siddaramaiah and Shivakumar’s meetings with the Congress high command in New Delhi revolved around two subjects.
The first was the implementation of the five guarantees that the party announced in its manifestos.
The other was accommodating and putting in place the Cabinet with the right combination of leaders from all communities, regions, factions, and generations.
“We have invited Rahul Gandhi, Sonia Gandhi, (AICC president) Mallikarjun Kharge, and Priyanka Gandhi for the ceremony. They gave their sweat and direction (to the campaign), so I wanted to invite them personally. Later, we discussed the cabinet formation,” Shivakumar told reporters in New Delhi.
The swearing-in ceremony is set to be a show of strength for the select Opposition parties across India amid efforts to take on the ruling BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
Thus, the Congress has also extended invitations to chief ministers like Nitish Kumar from Bihar, Mamata Banerjee from West Bengal, MK Stalin from Tamil Nadu, and Hemant Soren from Jharkhand, besides Congress chief ministers from other states.
Stating that the voice of the people would be the voice of the government of Karnataka, Shivakumar said, “All our national leaders are coming (for the swearing-in ceremony). Several national leaders have been invited for the swearing-in ceremony and most of them are coming, he said. On the first day, in the first Cabinet meeting, we will implement all our ‘guarantees’. We will keep up our promise.”
Shivakumar also invited leaders of the BJP and the JD(S) to the event, stating that they, too, were part of the government machinery as public representatives.
Before leaving for Delhi, Shivakumar said fulfilling the promises made to the people was the party’s priority.
“They are not Shivakumar’s or Siddaramaiah’s guarantees, they are the Congress’ guarantees,” he said.
The Congress has promised to implement five “guarantees”, the first of which is 200 units of free power to all households as part of a scheme called Gruha Jyoti.
The second is ₹2,000 monthly assistance to the woman head of every family, through a scheme called Gruha Lakshmi.
The third is 10 kg of rice free to every member of a BPL household as part of the Anna Bhagya scheme, while the fourth is ₹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 as part of the Yuva Nidhi scheme.
The fifth is free travel for women in public-transport buses. And the Congress said it would implement this on the first day after assuming power in the state.
Whether the new Congress government would implement the five “guarantees” that helped it in part to wrest power from the BJP in toto or would it now add a “conditions apply” clause to them is a question.
Key Congress leaders said earlier this week that the implementation of the five “guarantees” might cost the state exchequer an estimated ₹50,000 crore annually.
According to Congress’ manifesto drafting committee vice-chairman Professor KE Radhakrishna, these schemes would not cost more than ₹50,000 crore annually in a state whose annual budget is around ₹3 lakh crore.
He said the Gruha Lakshmi scheme offering ₹2,000 to every woman head of the family would apply only to BPL families.
According to some Congress leaders, the Gruha Jyothi, Yuva Nidhi, and other schemes are also likely to be restricted to BPL families.
A senior bureaucrat said these schemes, if implemented in their actual form without any condition, would “stress” the state’s economy. “Even if conditions are applied, it will burden the state’s economy,” he added.
“There should be severe austerity measures, control on unnecessary expenditure, leakage-prevention measures, curb on bogus bills, pre-audit of every public work, and check on ’40 percent commission’. This apart, Lokayukta should be given more powers to raid officers involved in wrongdoings,” he said.
Social activist Kathyayini Chamaraj said instead of being given money as freebies, people should be empowered by training them with skills.
According to her, the Congress, which introduced the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme at the Centre, could introduce an Urban Employment Guarantee Scheme and pay women heads of families as well as unemployed graduates and diploma holders.
Meanwhile, outgoing Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai said on Thursday that the Congress, “which has come to power with its guarantees”, had to fulfil them while ensuring that the financial health of the state was not disturbed.
“We (the BJP) have lost the election, but not self-confidence. We will bounce back in the state,” Bommai said.
Congratulating Siddaramaiah and DK Shivakumar, he said the people’s mandate must be respected in a democracy.
Some BJP leaders have alleged that implementation of the “guarantees” would push the state into bankruptcy, and have also claimed that the Congress would not honour its pre-poll promises fully.
BJP and JD(S) leaders have also said they were watching keenly if the Congress would honour its promises fully.
Meanwhile, several leaders from various parties are not invited to the swearing-in ceremony, and not all of those who have been sent an invitation may make it.
The Congress has reportedly not invited Delhi Chief Minister and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) chief Arvind Kejriwal, the Bahujan Samaj Party’s (BSP) Mayawati, Telangana Chief Minister and Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) chief K Chandrashekar Rao, Biju Janata Dal (BJD) leader Naveen Patnaik, and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister and YSR Congress chief Jagan Mohan Reddy for the swearing-in ceremony.
Meanwhile, West Bengal Chief Minister and Trinamool Congress (TMC) chief Mamata Banerjee will not attend the ceremony despite being invited.
However, she is expected to send a representative — Lok Sabha member Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar — for the event.
The Congress has invited a bevy of leaders for the swearing-in ceremony of Siddaramaiah and his cabinet at 12.30 pm in Bengaluru on Saturday.
They included Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK leader MK Stalin, Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar, Jharkhand Chief Minister and JMM leader Hemant Soren, and Bihar Deputy Chief Minister and RJP leader Tejaswi Yadav.
NCP President and former Maharashtra chief minister Sharad Pawar. Shiva Sena chief and former Maharashtra chief minister Udhhav Thackrey, Samajwadi Party leader and former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, National Conference leader and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Farooq Abdullah; and PDP president and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti are also on the list of invitees.
CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury; CPI general secretary D Raja; Madhya Pradhesh JD(U) president Lallan Singh MDMK president and Tamil Nadu MP Vaiko, RSP president and Parliamentarian NK Premchandran, CPI(ML) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya ; VCK president Thol Thirumavalavan; RLD president Jayant Chaudhary, KErala Congress president Jose K, and IUML president Sadiq Ali Thangal have also been invited to the event.
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