Chief Minister Siddaramaiah, Deputy Chief Minister D.K. Shivakumar, eight Cabinet Ministers and former Chief Ministers Basavaraj Bommai were among the prominent newly-elected MLAs to take oath as members of the Karnataka Legislative Assembly on May 22.
The first session of the 16th Legislative Assembly, after the Siddaramaiah-led government came to power in Karnataka, began on May 22 to enable all the newly-elected members to take the oath of office.
Earlier in the day, Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot administered the oath to R.V. Deshpande as pro-tem speaker of the House at the Raj Bhavan. Mr. Deshpande is the seniormost and 9-term member of the House. Later, he chaired the session.
Mr Deshpande said all the 224 newly-elected MLAS will take oath during the 3-day session, which would also see the election of a new Speaker.
Mr Siddaramaiah, Mr Shivakumar, and Ministers G. Parameshwara, K.H. Muniyappa, M.B. Patil, K.J. George, Satish Jarkiholi, Priyank Kharge were among the first few to take the oath as MLAs.
At the beginning of the session, Mr Deshpande said, “We all have been elected and come here with the blessings of the people of Karnataka. There are some senior leaders, and I can also see some new faces. We have to put efforts for the all-round development of the State. Despite political differences, for the sake of the State’s progress and growth, we will all have to work together to build a model Karnataka, which is prosperous, and all sections of people live in peace and harmony.”
Close to 100 MLAs took oath and exchanged greetings with Mr Deshpande, Mr Siddaramaiah, Mr Shivakumar and Mr Bommai.
