Karnataka: Siddaramaiah takes oath as chief minister, Shivakumar as dy CM at mega ceremony in Bengaluru

Siddaramaiah has been sworn in as Karnataka's Chief Minister for the second time today, alongside Karnataka Congress president D K Shivakumar as Deputy chief minister. 

At 12.30 pm, Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot administered the oath of office and secrecy to the Chief Minister and his Cabinet at Bengaluru's Kanteerava Stadium. 

The venue is the same as where Siddaramaiah took his oath as Chief Minister for the first time in 2013.

On Friday, the Congress high command authorised Karnataka CM-elect Siddaramaiah and his would-be deputy D K Shivakumar to select 10 faces each for a possible 29 to 30-member ministry, laying the groundwork for the new state government, which will be sworn in Saturday in the presence of the party brass, CMs from four UPA allies and a representative of newfound friend TMC.

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According to Congress sources, no invites have been given to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal or his Telangana counterpart KCR, while West Bengal's Mamata Banerjee will not attend due to previous commitments.

According to reports, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, and Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati are not among those invited.

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar, Tamil Nadu President Minister MK Stalin, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and his deputy Tejashwi Yadav, and former Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray are among those invited.

Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, D Raja and Sitaram Yechury of the Left, and actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan have all been invited.

Ashok Gehlot of Rajasthan, Bhupesh Baghel of Chhattisgarh, and Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu of Himachal Pradesh have all been invited by the Congress.