By IANS,
Bangalore : Indian farmer seems to be the much sought-after by political parties these days, and Karnataka’s new chief minister, B.S. Yeddyurappa of the Bharatiya Janata Party, did not lag behind in the exercise of wooing the farmer as he assumed office Friday.
The 65-year-old Yeddyurappa, in his trade-mark white safari suit, sported a green shawl on his shoulders while taking the oath of office to usher in the BJP’s first government on its own in Karnataka and south India.
Green colour has come to be identified with farmers in the state where farmers and members of the farmers’ organisations always sport a green shawl on their shoulders.
Yeddyurappa has never missed an opportunity to tell the people that he is the son of a humble farmer.
While the Congress-led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in New Delhi announced a massive loan waiver for farmers recently, the BJP has tried to do its bid for the farmers by promising fresh loans to them and other weaker sections, like weavers, at a low rate of three percent a year.
Yeddyurappa took the oath of office in the name of god and farmer.
The swearing-in of 29 other ministers, in batches of three, was cacophonic as each read aloud the oath, some faster than others.
Governor Rameshwar Thakur, from Bihar, seemed to have been put through a lot of Kannada practice as he fluently began the first sentence of the oath “..yemba hesarinavanada naanu” (I..so and so).
With tens of thousands of party workers and supporters heading to the state Secretariat building in the heart of Bangalore to witness the ceremony, traffic was diverted from the roads around the venue leading to heavy jam in some areas.
Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) leaders, former prime minister H.D. Deve Gowda and his son H.D. Kumaraswamy who became chief minister in Feb 2006 with the BJP support, did not attend the swearing-in ceremony.
Yeddyurappa conducted an elaborate puja in the chief minister’s office before occupying the seat.