Karnataka PCC chief G Parameshwara to be Deputy CM

Bengaluru, May 22

Congress' Karnataka state president G. Parameshwara would be the deputy chief minister in the Janata Dal (Secular)-Congress coalition government, a party leader said on Tuesday.

"Congress president Rahul Gandhi has approved the name of Parameshwara as the deputy chief minister in the coalition government," party's general secretary KC Venugopal told reporters here on Tuesday.

Parameshwara will take oath after JD (S) legislative party leader H.D. Kumarswamy is sworn-in as the Chief Minister on Wednesday evening in front of the Vidhana Soudha.

The 34-member ministry will have 22 cabinet ministers from the Congress and 12 from the JD-S.

"Speaker of the Legislative Assembly will be from the Congress and Deputy Speaker will be from the JD-S," said Venugopal.

The Speaker and Deputy Speaker will be named on Thursday and names of the cabinet ministers and their portfolios will be announced after the floor test in the hung House.

"A joint coordination committee with members from both the parties will be set up in the next couple of days," Venugopal added.

Kumaraswamy, meanwhile, dismissed reports of fissures in the still-cementing coalition.

"Everything is alright, no differences," he said after the meeting.

Congress president Rahul Gandhi, his mother and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, BSP supremo Mayawati, SP chief Akhilesh Yadav, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu, his Telangana counterpart K Chandrasekhar Rao and several other regional leaders are likely to attend the oath ceremony.

The ceremony is expected to be an Opposition show of strength, and is being seen as an attempt to galvanise a united non-BJP coalition to take on saffron tide in 2019. — Agencies