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Bengaluru, May 20: Congress Legislature Party (CLP) chief Siddaramaiah and state party president D K Shivakumar took oaths as Karnataka Chief Minister and Deputy Chief Minister respectively on Saturday, days after political drama over the grand old party's CM pick.

The swearing-in ceremony of the two veteran leaders was attended by Congress top brass, as well as by multiple Opposition leaders, amid the grand old party's push to forge Opposition unity ahead of the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.

Former Congress president Rahul Gandhi, who attended the event along with his sister and the party's national general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, took the stage to reiterate his party would fulfil the five guarantees it had promised. A decision will be taken in the very first cabinet meeting, which he said would be held in a few hours.

Top Opposition leaders, including Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin, CPI's D Raja, Bihar Chief Minister and JD(U) chief Nitish Kumar, PDP's Mehbuba Mufti, Sharad Pawar from NCP, Jammu & Kashmir National Conference's Farooq Abdullah, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren, CPI(M)'s Sitaram Yechury, and actor-turned-politician Kamal Haasan, were in attendance in a symbolic display of Opposition unity against the BJP ahead of next year's general elections. 

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, her Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal, Telangana's K Chandrashekar Rao, and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav were conspicuous by their absence from the mega event.

Mere days ago, the Congress swept Karnataka, bagging 135 seats in the state and reducing the BJP to a tally of 66.

Details awaited. 

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi Saturday, reacting to the party’s victory in Karnataka Assembly elections, said that he did not fight a divisive battle, and that “the strength of crony-capitalism was defeated by the power of poor.”

Addressing a press conference in party headquarters in New Delhi, Gandhi said, “the markets of hatred have closed down, and shops of love have opened in Karnataka.”

The BJP lost its only bastion in the south today, with Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai conceding defeat shortly after the Congress leads moved past 130 seats. The BJP is ahead on 60-plus seats and HD Kumaraswamy's JD(S) in over 20 seats.

Conceding defeat, Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai told reporters: "In spite of a lot of efforts put in by the Prime Minister and the BJP workers, we have not been able to make the mark. Once the full results come, we will do a detailed analysis... We take this result in our stride to come back in Lok Sabha elections."

In the 2018 elections, the BJP had won 104 seats, the Congress 80 and the JDS 37 in Karnataka. The BJP's BS Yediyurappa formed government but resigned before a majority test. Then, the Congress and the JDS formed a coalition government. The coalition government lasted 14 months after which 16 MLAs switched to the BJP, toppling the government and bringing the BJP back in power.

The Karnataka results is expected to boost the Congress ahead of next year's general elections and the assembly polls in three states later this year. The party is hoping to make a comeback in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh. It is also hoping to win back Madhya Pradesh, where its government crashed in 2020 with the defection of Jyotiraditya Scindia and his loyalists.

The results will be crucial for the BJP in terms of next year's national elections. The state accounts for 28 Lok Sabha seats. While the BJP vote share in the assembly polls has not dropped in comparison to 2018, the elections indicate that the party has not been able to make its much-needed breakthrough into the Vokkaliga and the Scheduled Castes and Tribes votes.

The Congress gains have hugely cheered the opposition. "The message from Karnataka is that the 'end' of BJP's negative, communal, corrupt, rich-oriented, anti-women-youth, social-divisive, false propaganda, individualistic politics has begun," tweeted Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav.

Mangaluru, May 15: A group of Bajrang Dal workers staged a protest in front of Wenlock Hospital in the city on Sunday after a man, who was undergoing treatment for liver disease died in the hospital. 

Nitin Poojary alias Roopesh (33), a resident of Nelyapalke of Maninalkur village in Bantwal taluk was admitted to hospital last week due to severe stomach ache. 

He was reportedly suffering from severe liver disease and died after three days without responding to any treatment. Nitin was a bus driver by profession. He was also an activist of Bajrang Dal, it is learnt. 

The protesters held the doctors of the hospital responsible for Nitin’s death and demanded an enquiry. They placed the dead body of Nitin in front of the hospital and raised slogans against the doctors.