All the five Congress Chief Ministers — Kamal Nath (Madhya Pradesh), V Narayanasamy (Puducherry), Amarinder Singh (Punjab), Ashok Gehlot (Rajasthan) and Bhupesh Baghel (Chhattisgarh) — stayed out of the swearing-in ceremony.
UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Congress President Rahul Gandhi, former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Opposition leader in Rajya Sabha Ghulam Nabi Azad represented the Congress in the ceremony.
These apart, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee stayed away from the function. She was annoyed at the invitation extended by the BJP to the families of 54 party activists who were murdered recently, allegedly by political opponents in West Bengal.
Odisha CM Navin Patnaik kept off as he had to take part in the oath-taking of newly elected MLAs in his State. His counterpart in Mizoram, Zoramthanga,, similarly skipped the function due to other official engagements.
South scene
Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan had also decided not to attend the function. The CPI(M)’s State unit is meeting to analyse the results.
Telangana Chief Minister K Chandrasekhara Rao and newly sworn in Andhra Pradesh CM YS Jagan Mohan Reddy, too, did not attend the ceremony. Both were about to take a special flight from Hyderabad, but were reportedly denied permission for landing at Delhi airport, which made them cancel their plans. Significantly, Reddy is hosting a dinner for Rao and DMK President MK Stalin in Hyderabad on Thursday.
Tamil Nadu CM Edappadi K Palaniswami and his Karnataka counterpart HD Kumaraswamy attended the ceremony.
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