Bengaluru swearing in and the shifting sands of opposition alliances

While several key Opposition leaders have not been invited, a few others who have, are not attending the oath taking ceremony on Saturday

Nothing better would depict the shifting sands of opposition alliances and unity than the list of leaders who attended the H D Kumaraswamy-led Janata Dal (Secular)-Congress government's oath of office five years back on May 23, 2018, and the invitee list of Siddaramaiah-led Congress council of ministers that will take the oath of office Saturday afternoon.

The highlight of the ceremony five years back was UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee and Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati standing side by side on the makeshift stage in front of Bengaluru's Vidhan Soudha. Notable absentees for Saturday's event are Mayawati and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, who were on the JD(S) invitee list. Banerjee has deputed three-term MP Kakoli Ghosh Dastidar. Trinamool sources insisted compulsions of state politics were keeping 'Didi' away from the Bengaluru event. Still, Banerjee's recent comments, and absence from the ceremony, suggest she wouldn't surrender even an inch to the Congress if the latter does not reciprocate in Bengal. Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, who had backed Banerjee's comment, has also been invited, as has his ally Rashtriya Lok Dal's Jayant Chaudhary.

CPM general secretary Sitaram Yechury will attend. But the party's Kerala unit is upset that CM Pinarayi Vijayan was not invited when other opposition CMs, including neighbouring Tamil Nadu's M K Stalin and Jharkhand's Hemant Soren, have been. "The move is an indication of the opposition party's "immature" politics and its lack of direction, Left Democratic Front convenor E P Jayarajan said. The CPM and Congress sources said the top leaders of other parties had been invited, which in some cases are also chief ministers. However, the Congress has invited Bihar CM Nitish Kumar and his party's president, the Janata Dal (United), Lallan Singh.

Telugu Desam Party chief N Chandrababu Naidu is the other notable absentee from five years back. The TDP quit the BJP-led NDA in March 2018 but hopes to return.

In 2018, Mayawati and Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav sat adjacent to each other two months after the SP, with the BSP's help, defeated the BJP in the Phulpur and Gorakhpur Lok Sabha bypolls, and a year hence their parties fought the 2019 Lok Sabha elections together.

Others invited are RJD's Tejashwi Yadav, NCP chief Sharad Pawar, former Maharashtra CM Uddhav Thackeray, National Conference chief Farooq Abdullah, PDP president Mehbooba Mufti, CPI(M) general secretary Dipankar Bhattacharya and CPI's D Raja.