BENGALURU: Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Rahul Gandhi, AICC president and Leader of Opposition in the Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge, Chief Ministers of three Congress-ruled states were among those who attended the swearing-in ceremony of DK Shivakumar.
Telangana CM Revanth Reddy, Kerala CM VD Satheesan and their Himachal Pradesh counterpart Sukvinder Singh Sukhu were present in the ceremony held at the Lok Bhavan. Chief Justice of Karnataka High Court Vibhu Bakhru was also present.
Apart from Kharge and Rahul, top brass from the Congress, including Rajya Sabha member and AICC General Secretary (Karnataka in-charge) Randeep Singh Surjewala, AICC General Secretary (Organisation) and Alappuzha Lok Sabha member KC Venugopal were present. Outgoing CM Siddaramaiah and former CM Veerappa Moily also attended the event. As soon as Shivakumar entered Lok Bhavan, he headed towards spiritual heads from all faiths and sought their blessings.
Among the prominent spiritual heads were Nirmalanandanatha Swami of Adichunchanagiri Mahasamsthana Math, Gowrigadde Avadhoot Vinay Guruji, Sri Karivrishabha Deshikendra Shivayogi Mahaswami of Kadasiddeshwara Mutt in Nonavinakere, Bengaluru Archbishop Peter Machado and representatives from Hazrat Kwaja Bandenawaz Dargah at Kalaburagi.
Stars from the Kannada film industry, including Shiva Rajkumar,former MP Ramya, Ramesh Aravind, Dhananjaya, Karnataka Film Chamber of Commerce President Jayamala, Ragini Dwivedi, music directors Arjun Janya and Gurukiran and others took part. Pourakarmikas, farmer leaders, students and Kannada activists were also part of swearing-in ceremony. Among the other prominent dignitaries who were in attendance were Infosys co-founder Narayana Murthy, his wife and Rajya Sabha member Sudha Murty, Karnataka State Cricket Association president Venkatesh Prasad, former India cricketers Mohammed Azharuddin, who is a minister in the Telangana cabinet, and Anil Kumble.