Senior Congress leader D K Shivakumar took oath as Karnataka chief minister on Wednesday, marking a change of guard in the state, and formally ending his long-drawn power tussle for the post with predecessor Siddaramaiah.

Governor Thaawarchand Gehlot administered the oath of office and secrecy to Shivakumar at the Lok Bhavan in Bengaluru and 13 other party legislators were also sworn in as ministers.

Soon after taking oath, in the presence of top leaders Mallikarjun Kharge, Rahul Gandhi, Shivakumar chaired his first cabinet meeting and announced youth-student-centric welfare initiatives including grant of free bus pass for students and formation of 10,000 Bharat Jodo Yuva Sanghas to raise leadership quality and build social harmony.

Clad in a silk kurta and dhoti, Shivakumar took the oath in the name of the revered seer “Gangadhar Ajja” while holding a copy of the Constitution. He bowed, and paid obeisance to the gathering before taking the oath.

Senior Dalit MLA G Parameshwara, who will be the new deputy CM, took oath in the name of Dr B R Ambedkar.

Along with Shivakumar and Parameshwara, the legislators, who took oath as ministers are — K H Muniyappa, K J George, M B Patil, Ramalinga Reddy, Satish Jarkiholi, Krishna Byregowda, Priyank Kharge, U T Khader, Eshwar Khandre, Yathindra Siddaramaiah, Byrathi Suresh, and Sharan Prakash Patil.

Eleven of the 13 ministers inducted into Shivakumar-led cabinet were part of the previous Siddaramaiah government in the state.

Interestingly, Siddaramaiah’s son and MLC Yathindra also made it to the Ministry. However, no women representatives were included in the first phase of cabinet formation.

Yathindra and U T Khader, who resigned as Legislative Assembly Speaker, are the only two new faces in Shivakumar’s cabinet, the rest were part of Siddaramaiah’s ministry.

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